
Class 
Book. 



COPYRIGHT DEPOSIT 



Latest Light 



on 



Abraham Lincoln 




LINCOLN IN 1S56 

From a photograph copy of an ambrotype taken by McMasters at Prince- 
ton, Ihinois, July 4, 1856. The only picture of Lincoln known to have 
been taken during that year. Photograph presented the author by 
Mrs. W. E. McVay, Los Angeles, California. 

{See page 66) 



Latest Light 

on 

Abraham Lincoln 

and War-time Memories 

Including many Heretofore Unpublished Incidents and 
Historical Facts concerning his Ancestry, Boy- 
hood, Family, Religion, Public Life, 
Trials and Triumphs 

ILLUSTRATED 

With many Reproductions from Original Paintings, 
Photographs, etc. 



/ BY 

ERVIN CHAPMAN, D.D., LL.D. 

Author of "A Stainless Flag," "Particeps Criminis," 
"The Czolgosz of Trade and Commerce," etc. 

WITH INTRODUCTION BY 
BISHOP JOHN W. HAMILTON 




New Yoek Chicago Toronto 

Fleming H. Revell Company 

London and Edinburgh 



Copyright, 1917, by 
ERVIN CHAPMAN 



JAN 15 iSi8 



New York : 1 58 Fifth Avenue 
Chicago: 17 North Wabash Ave. 
Toronto : 25 Richmond Street, W. 
London : 2 1 Paternoster Square 
Edinburgh : 100 Princes Street 



<^- 



)CI.A481411 



TO MY WIFE 

AND OUR FIVE CHILDREN 
^latn, jHcab, #Bltiia, 



"Let American High Schools teach at least one 
year of Lincoln. Teaching the use of the English 
language is one of the prime objects of public 
school instruction. Lincoln was one of the mas- 
ters of English. His simple, luminous sentences, 
which go as straight as bullets are models for the 
pupil which cannot be improved upon. School 
instruction seeks to form and strengthen a pupil's 
reasoning powers. To follow Lincoln's mind 
through his great controversies is an education 
in reasoning that no classical example can sur- 
pass. 

"It is high time he became a staple of American 
education. His collected writings and speeches 
not only contain the soul of the American story 
but are highly worth reading simply as literature 
—as the picture of a mind slowly evolving out of 
apparent common-place into supreme greatness, 
and so leading a people through a great crisis.'* 
—Judge R. M. Wanamaker. 



INTRODUCTION 

By Bishop John W. Hamilton, D.D., LL.D. 
Chancellor American University, Washi/ngton, D. C, 

ANOTHER Life of Abraham Lincoln? No, not a 
biography, but the latest authentic information relative 
to many features of his life in which the world is 
deeply interested. Such information is always in demand and 
at this time it is peculiarly welcome. In our own country 
Abraham Lincoln is today held in higher esteem than ever 
before, and public interest in his life and in all for which he 
is known to have contended, is constantly increasing. In pub- 
lic schools and institutions of higher education, in organiza- 
tions for literary culture and pursuits, on the lecture platform 
and in the pulpit, Lincoln's name is heard more frequently 
and with greater interest than is that of any other American. 
And scarcely less interesting or potential is his name in other 
lands. 

The world has set its halo about him for what it already 
knows of him but that only increases the desire to know more. 
And Doctor Ervin Chapman has responded to that desire by 
producing a work in which there is a great fund of informa- 
tion concerning Lincoln never before published. He has been 
able to do this because of his intimate knowledge of the work- 
ings of the general government and his close and prolonged 
acquaintance and association with eminent men during Lin- 
coln's administration. He is, therefore, able to write with 
authority and has done so in a manner so illuminating and 
instructive as to win for himself a well accredited distinction 
among all who have written about Lincoln and the times in 
which he lived. 

Doctor Chapman's eminent service during his long life 
devoted so fully to the progressive and memorable achieve- 

ix 



X INTRODUCTION 

ments of those historical and turbulent times, gives him 
superior qualifications to write with deepest sympathy and 
friendliness. SjTiipathy rules the world, the world of Letters 
as well as the world of Life. A friend will show himself 
friendly. A foe cannot conceal his enmity. Other things being 
equal the friend is more reliable than the foe, more popular 
surely. There are a hundred readers of Abbott's ''Life of 
Napoleon" to one who reads the life by Scott. Because of 
his deep sympathy with all that distinguished the life of 
Abraham Lincoln the author has here given us a work in the 
perusal of which one can hear the heart throbs of the writer. 
Good news can never come too often and this is a book of 
good news which we will never tire of reading. It tells us 
what we always believed was true about Lincoln and the proofs 
are so conclusive that no misleading myths or legends will 
hereafter be given credence. 

I commend to every reader the author's impassionate appeal 
for the aid of the platform, pulpit and press in repeating the 
entrancing story of the humble but hallowed home and family 
from which this great servant and messenger of God came to 
save the nation and to redeem a race. I have known Doctor 
Chapman for many years and have ever held him in high 
esteem. I have rejoiced in his great work on the Pacific Coast 
and throughout the nation, and have often announced my con- 
viction that of all men I have known he was the best adapted 
to the work of reform in which he was such an able and 
successful leader. I rejoice that he has lived to complete the 
great work on Abraham Lincoln which he has been for so many 
years engaged in producing. It will undoubtedly prove the 
crowning work of his remarkable life. He has giren abundant 
evidence of his fitness to write of the important matters with 
which he is familiar. He has added a valuable contribution 
to the political history of the nation and I am pleased to present 
my venerable friend of many years to my many friends of 

many lands. 

J. W. H. 



FOKEWOKD 

IT is indeed a special providence that a unique man like Dr. 
Ervin Chapman should just at this time of great emer- 
gency give to the world a work on Abraham Lincoln, in 
the preparation of which he has been engaged for more than 
half a century. 

Of "Particeps Criminis," "Bob" Burdette said, "Doctor 
Chapman is the only man who could write this book," and the 
same is true of the "Latest Light on Abraham Lincoln and 
War-time Memories." No one but this "Statesman-Preacher," 
as he is called, could so successfully have supplemented the 
three thousand Lincoln publications that have appeared, with a 
work that is unlike all that has been written concerning Abra- 
ham Lincoln, 

From boyhood Doctor Chapman has been engaged in literary 
pursuits and his writings have always been distinguished for 
their fascinating originality. His books entitled, "A Stainless 
Flag," "The Czolgosz of Trade and Commerce," and "Parti- 
ceps Criminis," have been widely and eagerly read. At sixteen 
he was on the lecture platform. At eighteen he was active in the 
organization of the Republican party and took the stump for 
Fremont, and at twenty-two he made one hundred speeches for 
the election of Abraham Lincoln as President. When but a 
lad he could repeat from memory the greater part of the Declar- 
ation of Independence and of the Constitution of the United 
States. "Jefferson's Letters," the "Madison Papers," "The 
Federalist," "Benton's Thirty Years' View," and "Democracy 
in America," were his delight while still in his teens and those 
works are yet in his possession with his original annotations. 
I have been thrilled with interest as I have handled those old, 
well-worn but well-preserved volumes, in the perusal of which 



2 FOREWORD 

this studious country boy unconsciously prepared for tlie great 
work he was destined to accomplish. The knowledge of the 
fundamental principles of civil government acquired by the 
study of such great books gave strength and imagination to the 
fervid eloquence of the "Boy Orator," as he was then called. He 
was brought into close association with the most distinguished 
men of the nation, and after the election of Lincoln as President 
he was called to Washington to fill an important position in the 
Federal government and to be an active participant in many of 
the decisive movements of those historic times, some of which 
were not known to the public and are not until now mentioned 
in history. 

During his connection with the government at Washington, 
Doctor Chapman began the accumulation of data which has 
made possible the production of this great work. His claim 
that during those fifty years nothing of value respecting Lin- 
coln has escaped him seems fully justified by the wealth of in- 
formation he has here given to the public. Without the extra- 
ordinary opportunities and the thorough personal preparation, 
which began in boyhood and has continued through an extended 
life, no author could have written a work of such great and 
permanent value ; and from a field less extended or less produc- 
tive such riches could not have been acquired. Momentous 
measures and movements have passed like a panorama and men 
have come and gone as in a moving pageant since Doctor Chap- 
man began his preparation for this work. Not one man is now 
living who was then prominent in public life. At that time 
Blaine, Conkling, Grant, and Garfield were just beginning to 
attract attention. Cleveland, Harrison and McKinley were un- 
known. John Hay was only a President's private secretary; 
Roosevelt had seen but seven summers, Taft eight, and Wood- 
row Wilson was a restless boy of nine years in a Presbyterian 
manse in Virginia. 

And while this procession was passing Doctor Chapman, 
like a toiling miner, was delving in the rock for the gold that 
enriches the pages of this historical masterpiece. In this he 



FOREWORD 3 

has not been hindered but helped by the ceaseless activities that 
have made his life so full of notable achievements. As a pastor, 
platform lecturer, participant in great conventions, and valiant 
leader in reforms, he has always been the champion of those civic 
and national ideals which he learned from the great books he 
studied so diligently in early life, and which with such con- 
summate skill he has in this work shown to be the mainspring 
of the marvelous life of Abraham Lincoln. 

He has been a preacher of great earnestness and power, with 
pronounced evangelistic gifts and inclinations, but he is most 
distinguished as an authority on the fundamental principles of 
civil government, and as a wise and successful leader in reform 
movements. When the Anti-Saloon League was organized in 
California there was a unanimous and unyielding demand that 
Doctor Chapman should become the leader of that new and 
unique movement, and so incomparable were his achievements 
in that field that nb one has ever doubted the wisdom of his 
selection for that difficult work. It was my good fortune to be 
one of that great assembly in San Francisco that sent Doctor 
Chapman out into California as superintendent of the Anti- 
Saloon League. The League was at that time understood to be 
an experimental movement but Doctor Chapman insisted that 
while its activities might be in a measure determined by con- 
ditions, its ideals must be fixed and immovable, and that the 
liquor traffic must be regarded and dealt with not as a business 
but as a crime, and that the League must always oppose the 
adoption of liquor license and any increase of the liquor license 
tax. He had learned these fundamentals from Lincoln and he 
adhered to them as tenaciously as the great Emancipator insisted 
that all rightful opposition to slavery must be based upon the 
unalterable proposition that slavery is wrong. 

Dr. Howard H. Russell, founder and first superintendent of 
the Anti-Saloon League, says : "From the day Doctor Chapman 
began the study of law in 1856 until 1898 when he became 
superintendent of the California Anti-Saloon League, every day 
of his life seems to have been spent in a school of discipline, 



4 FOREWORD 

development and instruction for his state-wide and nation-wi'dc 
work." And when Doctor Chapman induced the National 
League to declare that the liquor license tax was ''an entrench- 
ment for the liquor traffic and the higher the tax the stronger 
that entrenchment," Doctor Russell said, "Doctor Chapman has 
convinced us all. I believe this is one of the most important 
measures we have thus far undertaken." And when a year later 
the League was led to declare that the liquor traffic is "not a 
business but a crime," the national superintendent, Dr. P. A. 
Baker, said to Doctor Chapman, "You have lifted us a notch 
higher." Upon that high level Doctor Chapman's "Stainless 
Flag" address was prepared and delivered throughout the 
length and breadth of this nation under the auspices of the 
National League. It was my supreme privilege when a pastor 
in Brooklyn to hear that epochal address in New York City and 
subsequently to learn of its great influence in creating and 
maintaining the conviction now so dominant in the nation that 
civil government cannot rightfully give legal standing to the 
traffic in strong drink. That address on "A Stainless Flag" is 
not outranked in power and eloquence by either Neal Dow or 
John B. Gough. 

As the doctrines of Abraham Lincoln prepared Doctor Chap- 
man for his great influence in temperance reform, so his work 
in that reform contributed very largely to his preparation for 
this monumental work on Lincoln. Without the least break or 
delay he passed from the strenuous struggles of the Anti-Saloon 
League to the work of classifying and arranging the varied and 
scholarly material he had accumulated. I was closely asso- 
ciated with him when he turned from all other activities to the 
happy labor of preparing the manuscript of this work. I ob- 
served the enthusiasm with which he retired from the public 
arena of conflict and sought the quiet seclusion in which he 
could work without interruption. And I have been thrilled 
with delight as I have seen this work take definite form and ex- 
pand into such magnificent and masterful proportions. My hopes 
were high when I first learned of the plan and scope of the pro- 




ERVIN CHAPMAN, D.D, LL.D. 



FOREWORD 5 

posed volume, and I fully appreciated Doctor Chapman's rare 
fitness for the task he had undertaken, but I had never imagined 
that to the thousands of Lincoln ^publications another could be 
added of such surpassing interest and value. And my greatest 
astonishment is in finding in this work so much valuable infor- 
mation which does not appear in any other publication. I am 
delighted to note the characteristic courage with which the 
author calmly sets aside as untruthful many harmful statements 
concerning Lincoln which have been given wide publicity, and 
the conclusive evidence he produces in support of his declar- 
ations. 

It is not a new Lincoln but a true and real, indeed a living 
Lincoln, which Doctor Chapman gives us in this work, a Lincoln 
of whose lineage and birth, and personal appearance and re- 
ligious belief and experience we have every reason to be proud. 
And it is that incomparably great and gracious Lincoln whom 
the world must ever hereafter behold, admire and imitate. 

Doctor Chapman has placed a grateful posterity under ever- 
lasting obligation to him for this brilliant masterpiece. 

Charles Edward LockEj 
Pastor First Methodist Episcopal Church, 
Los Angeles, Cal. 



PREFACE 

THIS work Is the product of more tlian half a century of 
diligent preparation and labor. It is added to the vast 
Lincoln library in the belief that it contains fresh and 
heretofore unpublished information relative to Abraham Lin- 
coln and men and events of his day. My personal participation 
in the activities of the national government during Mr. Lincoln's 
Presidency, and my intimate acquaintance and close official 
association with many of the most prominent men of that day 
afforded me the best of facilities for acquiring knowledge of 
what was then in progress throughout the nation. Therefore, 
my personal reminiscences of those years, which are published 
for the first time in this work, contain much valuable informa- 
tion which other writers seem not to have secured. 

In addition to this are the accumulations of prolonged and 
careful research in which nothing of value relative to Lincoln 
has been overlooked. More than two thousand publications 
have been carefully examined and made to contribute to the 
data which makes authentic every statement of this work. 
From books and other war-time publications, from national and 
local official records, and from Confederate documents and his- 
tories, items have been gathered and woven into connected 
records of events which form important new contributions to 
authentic history. The disclosures thus made are of great sig- 
nificance and some of them are so astounding that the validity 
of the history may at first be doubted. But investigation will 
establish, beyond question, the truth of every statement and 
deduction contained herein. 

I have been greatly favored and aided in all this prolonged 
and taxing research. Data that had been lost have by diligent 
search been recovered, and much of which I had never heard 
came unsought into my possession and has been used to the 

7 



8 PREFACE 

great advantage of this work. Many doors have been volun- 
tarily opened to me, affording admission to unsearched realms 
abounding in new and exceedingly valuable material. Sym- 
pathizing friends and strangers, hearing of the nature and 
purpose of my work, have contributed information that has 
aided me greatly to enrich these pages with choice Lincolniana 
in literature and art. 

I was especially fortunate in the extended research which 
made possible the preparation of the account of the Jaquess- 
Gilmore Mission, knowledge of which during its progress was 
not had even by the President's confidential secretaries, nor by 
any member of his Cabinet. A great flood of light is by that 
fascinating story cast upon the character and inner life of 
Abraham Lincoln, revealing his secret meditations and his un- 
declared hopes during even the darkest period of his life. Very 
extensive and unfrequented fields were perseveringly surveyed 
in securing the information given in that chapter. Each item 
is fully authenticated by unquestionable records, but here only 
have they been united so as to tell the thrilling story of that 
unique and marvelously successful adventure. 

The chapter devoted to quotations from the diary of Lin- 
coln's pastor, Rev. P. D. Gurley, D.D., is of special interest 
and value. The existence of this daily record by the able and 
distinguished minister who, during Mr. Lincoln's Presidency, 
was his beloved spiritual adviser and his esteemed and trusted 
counsellor, has for some time been known to a limited number 
of persons and has eagerly been sought by writers and pub- 
lishers, but until the present it has been withheld from publica- 
tion. I was delighted to secure the manuscript from Doctor 
Gurley's daughter, Mrs. Emma Gurley Adams of Washington, 
D. C, and I heartily commend it to the reader. 

A considerable portion of this work is devoted to the cor- 
rection of errors. No man in American history is so generally 
misunderstood as Abraham Lincoln. Erroneous statements and 
opinions relative to his ancestry, early life, family relations, 
personal appearance, bearing, habits, attitude to reforms, and 



PREFACE 9 

religious belief and experience have long remained uncorrected 
to the great detriment of the world's heritage in one of its 
most important characters. Those misrepresentations and 
misconceptions have come from conditions existing during Mr. 
Lincoln's life, and from the malice or inexcusable carelessness 
of writers since his assassination. 

Mr. Lincoln was before the nation for only seven years 
and was known to the people of his own state for but a slightly 
more extended period. However, during all of that time there 
was in progress throughout the nation a great moral and civic 
movement which was characterized by intense bitterness of 
spirit, and personal animosities. 

Mr. Lincoln was an active and influential participant in 
that contest and during its progress he was the target for the 
most vindictive and cruel personal assaults known to political 
campaigns. At first the misrepresentations were only such as 
are usual in heated political contests, for he was always held 
in high esteem by his partisan antagonists in Illinois. But 
when his fame became national, and the movement against 
slavery became dangerous to that institution, the warfare against 
him sank to a lower level and was prosecuted with less regard 
for truth and honor. 

So long as damaging misrepresentations were confined to 
the campaign statements of his political antagonists their in- 
fluence was not seriously harmful, but when his former law 
partner, William H. Herndon, published in his ''Life of Lin- 
coln" that he was of illegitimate birth and had declared to 
him that the same was true of his mother, the wicked falsehood 
was accepted as true, and added immensely to the force of 
other untruthful statements that were given wide circulation. 
As is shown in this work Herndon's statement was promptly 
and indignantly denied and was proved to be without the least 
foundation. But after that had been done it continued to be 
reproduced in later works and was given wide publicity. 

Herndon was a pronounced infidel and in his book states 
that Lincoln also was an unbeliever. This declaration was 



10 PREFACE 

confirmed by Lamon, another infidel author of a Lincoln 
biography, and has been repeated by many careless writers and 
widely proclaimed by enemies of Christianity and of Lincoln 
until, in spite of his own strong, unequivocal declarations to 
the contrary, it i8 very widely believed to be true. In like 
manner many other harmful errors have been published and 
accepted until the true image of Lincoln is quite generally 
seen through a mask of unfortunate misconceptions. 

These conditions should not be permitted to continue. It 
is due the memory of Lincoln that his image, so admired by 
the world, should be unmasked and made to appear in public 
thought in its unmarred purity and beauty. The misleading 
legendry which has become associated with his name should be 
cast aside and forgotten, and the truthful history of this greatest 
product of the new world should be reverently learned in its 
entirety and faithfully repeated to all the world, and to suc- 
ceeding generations. To aid in accomplishing this result is 
the chief purpose of this work. 

The charming "Stories about Lincoln" which form a 
chapter are pleasingly illustrative of his unique and delightful 
personality. Mr. Lincoln's own stories have been given large 
space in other publications, but brief accounts of events with 
which he was connected, such as are here given, have had less 
publicity. They are, however, bright and lovely gems picked 
up on vast fields of research and are here given their illuminat- 
ing historical settings. 

The topical arrangement of Mr. Lincoln's declarations of 
religious beliefs and experiences constitute a feature peculiar 
to this work. By this grouping of his own statements it is 
possible to ascertain, with but little effort, the exact truth 
relative to this very interesting and important matter. The 
collecting of this material from the large number of books con- 
sulted and its arrangement topically has been the most pro- 
longed and tedious feature of the preparation of this work. 
But it has been a labor of love and of unspeakable delight 
Ministers, lecturers, lawyers, teachers and writers are busy 




O "j —^ ^ •*< l-< . — < i. "v^ ^ '-f ',T '-1 ^' « "^ ^ 33 --» i^- 




JS ti 



o ^ 







PREFACE II 

people and only a limited number have access to the thousands 
of publications in which this material may be found and from 
which it has been patiently collected and classified, as gold is 
gathered from a mine and cast into form for convenient use. 
If this shall prove helpful to my busy, burdened fellow workers 
I shall feel amply rewarded for my tireless labors to that end. 

Special mention is here made of the efficient services of Miss 
Glenn Will in the diversified lines of labor by which this book 
has been produced. She has three times crossed the continent 
and prosecuted extensive research in public and private libraries 
and in museums and collections of rare Lincolniana. Too much 
cannot be said in commendation of her labors and achieve- 
ments. 

It is a great pleasure here to acknowledge the valuable assist- 
ance of Rev. James M. Campbell, D.D., in the preparation of 
this volume. Doctor Campbell has attained international fame 
as the author of many books of great worth, and to his ability 
and learning the character of this book is in no small measure 
due. 

In a statement as brief as this must be it is not possible to 
mention all who have aided me in securing data or in the prej)a- 
ration of this work. One mind has been constantly alert and 
watchful for facts and suggestions concerning Lincoln, and by 
that assistance from my wife this publication has been made 
possible. With like constancy, though for a less extended 
period, our children have added to my resources of literature 
and art, and thus and otherwise have shared in my labors and 
achievements. 

Hon. Robert T. Lincoln has with characteristic courtesy 
responded to all my requests for his counsel and assistance, and 
in interviews and by correspondence, his encouragement and 
aid have been exceedingly helpful. Persons in charge of public 
and private libraries, and of collections of Lincolniana have 
extended every needed courtesy. In prosecuting that research 
assistance of special value has been received from D. M. Gau- 
dier, D.D., Mrs. W. E. McVey, Rev. George W. Wilson, D.D., 



12 



PREFACE 



Kev. P. C. L. Harris, Miss Carline Mclllvaine, Howard H. 
Russell, D.D., LL.D., Miss Laura R. Church and Mr. Douglas 
Volk. 

Authors and publishers have with uniform cheerfulness 
granted permission to reproduce as has been requested. For 
such courtesies special acknowledgment is here made to Mr. 
Truman H. Bartlett, Century Company, F. C. Iglehart, D.D., 
Methodist Book Concern, Robert M. Browne, M.D., Mr. Fred- 
erick H. Meserve, George P. Putnam's Sons, Miss Ida M. Tar- 
bell, Mrs. Nellie Blessing Eyster, Mr. J. L. G. Ferris, William 
J. Johnson, D.D., the Gerlach-Barklow Company, Mrs. Caro- 
line Hanks Hitchcock, Houghton, Mifflin Company, Colonel A. 
K. McClure, Francis Grierson, Esq., Scribner's Magazine, 
Everybody's Magazine, Little, Brown & Company, L. C. Page 
& Company, Mr. John W. Lincoln, Miss Helen Nicolay, Mr. 
0. H. Olroyd, Mr. Harry Roseland, General James F. Rusling, 
Colonel W. O. Stoddard, Doubleday, Page & Company, and 
Hon. Henry W. Melvin. 

From others whose names do not here appear I have received 
encouragement and aid which I hope ever to remember with 
appreciation and gratitude. And as I lay aside the pen with 
which these pages have been written, upon this work believed 
to have been begun and conducted under the promptings of the 
Divine Spirit, "I invoke the considerate judgment of mankind 
and the gracious favor of Almighty God." 

ERVIN CHAPMAN. 
Los Angeles, California. 



CONTENTS 
Part I 

CHAPTER PAGE 

I. Lincoln — Fortune's Favorite 17 

11. Lincoln's Personal Appearance 43 

III. The Jaquess-Gilmore Mission 83 

IV. Lincoln and Temperance 141 

V. Lincoln and Slavery — Opposed to Slavery 176 

VI. Emancipation Considered 193 

VII. Emancipation Proclamation 219 

VIII. Constitutional Amendment 249 

Part II 

I. Reminiscences of Lincoln's Second Inaugural. . 277 

II. Lincoln's Religious Faith 299 

III. Lincoln's Religious Faith — (Continued) 319 

IV. Lincoln's Faith in Prayer 364 

V. Lincoln's Religious Experience 395 

VI. Lincoln and Horace Greeley 441 

VII. The Wade-Davis Manifesto 484 

VIII. Excerpts from Unpublished Manuscript by Dr. 

P. D. Gurley 499 

Part III 

I. Short Stories about Lincoln 511 

Index 557 



"From the union of the Colonists, Puritans 
and Cavaliers, from the strengthening of their 
purposes and the crossing of their blood, came he 
who stands as the first typical American, the first 
to comprehend within himself all the strength and 
gentleness, all the majesty and grace of this Re- 
public, Abraham Lincoln. He was the son of 
Puritan and Cavalier, for in his ardent nature 
were fused the virtues of both, and in the depth 
of his great soul the faults of both were lost. 
He was greater than Puritan, greater than Cava- 
lier in that he was American. Let us build with 
reverent hands to the type of that simple but 
sublime life in which all types are honored." 

— Henry W, Grady. 



ILLUSTRATIONS 



OFFOSITB 
PAGE 



Lincoln in 1856 Title 

Ervin Chapman, D.D., LL.D 4 

The author while making his one hundred speeches for Lincoln's first 

election as President 10 

The badge he wore ia parades during that campaign 10 

The ticket he voted four years later 10 

Lincoln's mother's bible 30 

Cabin in which Abraham Lincoln was born 32 

Early pmrsuit of knowledge 32 

Stephen A. Douglas 34 

Mrs. Mary Todd Lincoln 36 

Tablecloth presented by Mrs. Lincoln 40 

Lincohi in 1861 46 

Lincoln and detective Pinkerton 50 

The greatest among the great 52 

Lincoln at Cooper Institute. . , 56 

Leonard W. Volk and his busts of Lincoln and Douglas 60 

Bust of Lincoln, made by Leonard W. Volk, April, 1860 62 

Lincohi in 1848 64 

First picture as candidate for President 66 

Last picture of President Lincoln 66 

Abraham Lincoln in 1860, soon after his nomination 68 

Lincoln in 1863, a few days before he delivered the Gettysburg address . . 70 

Why people thought Lincoln homely 82 

Colonel James F. Jaquess 84 

Abraham Lincoln in 1847, pledging Cleopas Breckenridge to total absti- 
nence 150 

Howard H. Russell, D.D., LL.D 152 

President Lincoln and his Cabinet 228 

Facsimile of manuscript by R. M. Devens 230 

Lincoln and the contrabands 248 

Hon. James M. Ashley of Ohio 258 

Memories 274 

15 



1 6 ILLUSTRATIONS 



OPPOSITE 
PAGE 



President Lincoln during the battle of Gettysburg 276 

Chief Justice Salmon Portland Chase 280 

Bible on which Lincoln took oath of office 290 

Seal of the Supreme Court affixed to the bible on which Lincoln took the 

oath of office 1861 292 

Discoveries and inventions, being facsimile of first pages of the lecture 

supposed to have been lost 303 

Father Charles Chiniquy 328 

Hon. James F. Wilson of Iowa 346 

N. Bateman 350 

General Daniel E. Sickles 386 

General James F. Rusling 388 

General Rushng's certificate 390 

Col. W. O. Stoddard 414 

President Lincobi and family 426 

Horace Greeley 440 

Rev. Phineas D. Gurley, D.D., President Lincoln's pastor, and the New 

York Avenue Presbyterian Church, Washington, D. C 500 

Bouquet of flowers picked and presented by Abraham Lincoln at the 

White House 502 

Deathbed of Lincoln 504 

The Village Blacksmith. This engraving hung in the room where Presi- 
dent Lincoln died 506 

Facsimile letter written by Lincoln April 6, 1860 510 

As seen and loved abroad. A picture woven in silk in Switzerland in 

1865 522 

Henry Ward Beecher 536 

David R. Locke, author of humorous Nasby writings greatly enjoyed by 

President Lmcoln 540 



VOLUME I 



"The name of Abraham Lincoln will be cher- 
ished, so long as we have a history, as one of the 
wisest, purest and noblest magistrates, as one 
of the greatest benefactors to the human race, 
that have ever lived. ... So much firmness 
with such gentleness of heart, so much logical 
acuteness with such almost childlike simplicity 
and ingenuousness of nature, so much candor to 
weigh the wisdom of others, with so much tenacity 
to retain his own judgment, were rarely before 
united in one individual. Never was such vast 
political power placed in purer hands ; never did 
a heart remain more humble and unsophisticated 
after the highest prizes of earthly ambition had 
been obtained." 

— ^J. LoTHROP Motley. 



LINCOLN— FORTUNE'S FAVORITE 

ABRAHAM LINCOLN was well born, and the aus- 
picious conditions into which he came at his birth 
were prophetic of the generous favors of fortune 
during all his life. 

Ancestry 

He was favored in the two lines of lineage which united in 
his wonderful personality. Both of those ancestral lines were 
of high-grade and each possessed qualities for which he was 
distinguished. The Lincoln line of lineage from its earliest 
history moved conspicuously upon a high plane, never lost, 
never broken and never joined in any unfavorable alliance. 

The hardships of pushing back the wooded wilderness and 
redeeming the virgin soil for the use of man ; the dangers of 
encounters with hostile savages ; the struggle for daily bread, 
together with powerful religious influences, served to keep 
that line of lineage upon a lofty plane. The course which it 
followed extended from the Atlantic's rocky coast, westward 
through New England and across the Alleghenies and the 
mountains of Virginia, to the verdant valleys of Kentucky — 
Abraham Lincoln's native state. And the dangers and hard- 
ships through which the rugged heroes of that line were called 
to pass, were calculated to produce the toughened fibre of 
Abraham Lincoln's giant frame and his superb moral 
stamina. 

Soon after the Lincolns reached Kentucky, Abraham 
Lincoln — grandfather of the great President — was shot and 
instantly killed by a hostile Indian. This tragedv was wit- 

17 



i8 LATEST LIGHT ON ABRAHAM LINCOLN 

nessed by his youngest son, a lad of but six years of age, who 
was with his father at the time. Two older sons, who had 
accompanied their father to his work, witnessed the tragedy 
from a distance, and knowing that the attack indicated that 
other savages were lurking in the vicinity, fled, one to the 
nearby cabin for his rifle, and the other to the settlement for 
help. But the boy kept his faithful vigil close beside his 
father's lifeless form. 

The Indian, as he approached his victim, saw the lad; 
and as he stooped to bear him as a trophy to his fellow 
savages, a well-aimed bullet from the cabin terminated his 
life. The boy thus rescued was Thomas Lincoln who became 
the father of Abraham Lincoln, the honored ruler and saviour 
of the nation. 

Under the old English law of primogeniture, which was 
then in force in Kentucky, the large estate of Thomas Lin- 
coln's father was inherited by the eldest son; and Thomas 
became dependent upon his widowed mother who was unable 
to contribute adequately to his needs. Little is known of his 
life until he became a man and found employment at day 
labor in a Kentucky frontier settlement. 

A typical frontiersman was Thomas Lincoln, of stalwart 
form, and of fine qualities of heart and mind; as brave and 
fearless as had been his father ; and as amiable and gentle as 
was his mother. He was tall and of great width of shoulders, 
with neck, chest and limbs fitted to grapple with the heavy 
tasks of the timbered wilderness, and subdue it into beauty 
and productiveness. 

By common consent he became the arbiter of difficulties 
among his neighbors, for he was ever wise and fair in his 
judgments and fearless and effective in maintaining the ver- 
dicts he so frequently was called upon to render. These qual- 
ities were in Thomas Lincoln united with a childlike piety 
and humble trust in God. He was not learned in scholarship 
or books, but he was well and widely educated in the lessons 
of early pioneer experience and in Christian faith and life. 



LINCOLN— FORTUNE'S FAVORITE 19 

Judge H. C Whitney tells us that, "William G. Greene, 
who spent one day with Thomas Lincoln and felt interested 
to make a study of him, avers that he was a man of great 
native reasoning powers and fine social magnetism, reminding 
him of his illustrious son. He describes him as 'very stoutly 
built, about five feet ten inches high, and weighing nearly two 
hundred pounds.' His desire was to be on terms of amity 
and sociability with every one."^ 

William Eleroy Curtis has this to say of him: "He must 
have had good stuff in him, for when he was twenty-five 
years old he had saved enough from his wages to buy a farm 
in Hardin county. Local tradition represents him to have been 
'an easy going man, slow to anger, but when aroused a formi- 
dable adversary.' "" 

Mrs. Caroline Hanks Hitchcock says: "He had been forced 
from his boyhood to shift for himself in a young and un- 
developed country. He is known to have been a man who 
in spite of this wandering life contracted no bad habits. He 
was temperate and honest, and his name is recorded in more 
than one place in the records of Kentucky. He was a church- 
goer, and if tradition may be believed, a stout defender of 
his peculiar religious views. He held advanced ideas of what 
was already an important public question in Kentucky, the 
right to hold Negroes as slaves. One of his old friends has 
said of him that he was 'just steeped full of notions about 
the wrongs of slavery and the rights of men, as explained by 
Thomas Jefferson and Thomas Paine.' These facts show 
that he must have been a man of some natural intellectual 
attainment. 

"Considering the disadvantages under which he labored, 
he had a very good start in life when he became engaged to 
Nancy Hanks. He had a trade and owned a farm which he 
had bought in 1803 in Buffalo, and also owned land in Eliza- 
bethtown. If all the conditions of his life be taken into con- 

1 Lincoln the Citizen, pp. 6-10. 

2 The True Abraham Lincoln, p. 18. 



20 LATEST LIGHT ON ABRAHAM LINCOLN 

sideration, it is not true, as has been said, that Thomas Lin- 
coln was at this time a shiftless and purposeless man."^ 

Indeed in every needed quality Thomas Lincoln was fitted 
to become the father of the one who, in his day, was both 
the Moses and the Joshua to deliver an enslaved race from the 
house of bondage, and to lead them into the land of promise. 
No excesses of his own, or of his ancestors, mingled weaken- 
ing poison in the blood which flowed throughout his stalwart 
frame. He possessed qualities of body and mind that con- 
stitute the richest heritage which any man can give to pos- 
terity. 

And that those noble qualities might, with certainty, be 
inherited by his offspring, it was provided that when Thomas 
Lincoln stood at the hymeneal altar, Nancy Hanks should 
stand beside him, and then and there plight with him her 
solemn marriage troth. She was his superior in every high 
quality. In charm of personality, exuberance of spirits, and 
deep religious experience she was unequalled in all that 
frontier region. She was of worthy and distinguished ances- 
try, extending back through brave and brawny pioneers to the 
famous early heroes of Virginia. 

"The roots of the husband's ancestral tree reached down 
to Puritan England, and on the part of the wife, to the days 
when a King of Britain confronted Imperial Rome." 

Nicolay and Hay, President Lincoln's private secretaries, 
in their great work, write of Nancy Hanks as she appeared 
at the time of her marriage, as follows: "All accounts rep- 
resent her as a handsome young woman of twenty-three, of 
appearance and intellect superior to her lowly fortunes. She 
could read and write, a remarkable accomplishment in her 
circle, and even taught her husband to form the letters of his 

"4 

name. 

Noah Brooks says of Nancy Hanks that she "was a 
woman of great force of character and passionately fond of 

3 Nancy Hanks, pp. 56-58. 

* Abraham Lincoln, A History, Vol. I., p. 24. 



LINCOLN— FORTUNE'S FAVORITE 21 

reading. Every book on which she could lay her hands was 
eagerly read, and her son said, years afterwards, that his 
earliest recollection of his mother was of his sitting at her 
feet with his sister, drinking in the tales and legends that 
were read or related to them, by the house-mother."^ 

No man in public life stood closer to President Lincoln 
than did Hon. Isaac N. Arnold, Member of Congress from 
Chicago, who has this to say: "Mrs. Lincoln, the mother of 
the President, is said to have been in her youth, a woman of 
beauty. She was by nature refined, and of far more than 
ordinary intellect. Her friends spoke of her as being a per- 
son of marked and decided character. She was a woman of 
the most exemplary character, and most tenderly and affec- 
tionately devoted to her family. Her home indicated a de- 
gree of taste and a love of beauty exceptional in the wild set- 
tlement in which she lived. 

"But in spite of this she had been reared where the very 
means of existence were to be obtaind by a constant struggle, 
and she learned to use the rifle and the tools of the backwoods 
farmer, as well as the distaff, the cards and the spinning 
wheel. She could not only kill the wild game of the woods, 
but she could also dress it, make of the skins clothes for her 
family and prepare the flesh for food. Hers was a strong, 
self-reliant spirit, which commanded the respect as well as the 
love of the rugged people among whom she lived."^ 

Phebe A. Hanaford says: "Abraham Lincoln's mother, 
noble and blessed woman, was his inspiration. She was deter- 
mined that her son should at least learn to read his Bible; 
and, before God called her to dwell with the angels, she had 
the satisfaction of seeing him read the volume which he never 
afterwards neglected. Abraham's mother might have said, as 
did Mary the mother of Jesus, 'From henceforth all genera- 
tions shall call me blessed'; and while this generation shall 
revere the name and memory of the mother of George Wash- 

5 Works of Abraham Lincoln, Vol. VIII., p. 6. 
* Abraham Lincoln, p. 19. 



22 LATEST LIGHT ON ABRAHAM LINCOLN 

ington, side by side with hers will it write the name of the 
mother of Abraham Lincoln/" 

Dr. D. D. Thompson says: "Nancy Hanks is described as 
tall, dark-haired, comely, dignified and winsome, by her grace 
and kindness. She seemed at times as if looking far away, 
seeing what others did not see. She had attended school in 
Virginia, and stood upon a higher intellectual plane than those 
around her. The Bible was read morning and evening, and 
her conduct was in accordance with its precepts. She was on 
the frontier, where few books were to be had to satisfy her 
thirst for knowledge, and where there was little intellectual 
culture. She was wife, mother and teacher. . . . On Sun- 
days she would gather her children around her, and read to 
them the wonderful stories in the Bible, and pray with them. 
After he had become President, Abraham Lincoln, speaking 
of his mother, said: "I remember her prayers, and they have 
always followed me. They have clung to me all my life."* 

Dr. L. P. Brockett says: ''Nancy Hanks was a truly noble 
woman, as her son's life attested. From her came that deep 
and abiding reverence for holy things — that profound trust 
in Providence and faith in the triumph of truth — and that 
gentleness and amiability of temper, which, in the lofty sta- 
tion of Chief Magistrate, he displayed so strikingly during 
years of most appalling responsibility. From her he derived 
the spirit of humor and the desire to see others happy, which 
afterwards formed so prominent a trait in his character.''^ 

Dr. John G. Holland, one of America's most distinguished 
and esteemed authors, says: "Mrs. Lincoln, the mother, was 
evidently a woman out of place among those primitive sur- 
roundings. A great man never drew his infant life from a 
purer or more womanly bosom than her own ; and Mr. Lincoln 
always looked back to her with an unspeakable affection."^" 

Charles Carlton Coffin, an able journalist, says: "Nancy 
Hanks Lincoln, queenly in personal appearance, imperial in 

'Life of Abraham Lincoln, p. 15. "Abraham Lincoln, p. 11. 

^Life of Abraham Lincohi, p. 41. i^Life of Abraham Lincoln, p. 23. 



LINCOLN— FORTUNE'S FAVORITE 23 

her aspirations, attends to her wifely duties. The day begins 
and ends with reUgious service. The cultured wife reads the 
Bible to the uncultured husband. His lips utter the prayer. 
The horizon of her life was wider than the walls of her 
home. . . . Little did this mother know how deeply her 
lessons of truth and virtue went down into the heart of her 
listening son; how in the fullness of time the germs would 
put forth their tender shoots; how her own spirit would re- 
appear in his, and the beauty of her soul glorify his life."^^ 

With characteristic tenderness and beauty, Mr. Coffin 
further says: "Her aspirations were far different from those 
of her kind-hearted husband. She heard voices which he could 
not hear. Her discerning eyes beheld what he would never 
be able to see. The world will never know the greatness of its 
debt to her for doing what she could in stamping her own 
lofty conception of duty and obligation upon the hearts and 
consciences of her children. 

"There had ever been loving intimacy and sympathy be- 
tween Mrs. Lincoln and her children. She had discerned what 
the father had not seen in their boy, a nature rich and rare; 
kindness of heart, sympathy with suffering, regard for what 
was right, impatience with wrong. She had watched the un- 
folding of his intellect. He had asked questions which others 
of his age did not ask. She knows that her work for this life 
is ended. Her boy stands by her bedside, 

" T am going away from you, Abraham, and shall not re- 
turn. I know that you will be a good boy; that you will be 
kind to Sarah and to your father. I want you to live as I have 
taught you, and to love your heavenly Father.' Through life 
he will hear her last words. In the full vigor of manhood he 
will not think it unmanly to say with tearful eyes, 'All that I 
am, all that I hope to be, I owe to my angel mother.' "^^ 

The veteran author, Francis Fisher Browne, beloved by 
all who knew him and by all who have read his works, says: 
"The tender, and reverent spirit of Abraham Lincoln, and the 

11 Life of Abraham Lincoln, p. 20. i^Jbij^ pp 27-28. 



24 LATEST LIGHT ON ABRAHAM LINCOLN 

pensive melancholy of his disposition, he no doubt inherited 
from his mother. Amid the toil and struggle of her busy life 
she found time not only to teach him to read and write but to 
impress upon him ineffaceably that love of truth and justice, 
that perfect integrity and reverence for God, for which he 
was noted all his life. Lincoln always looked upon his mother 
with unspeakable affection, and never ceased to cherish the 
memory of her life and teaching."^^ 

The following excerpts from Mrs. Hitchcock's book are of 
special interest and value: — 

"The beautiful Nancy Hanks seems to have been the center 
and leader in all the merry country parties. Bright, scintil- 
lating, noted for her keen wit and repartee, she had withal 
a loving heart."^* 

"Joseph Hanks, Nancy's brother, was a man of sterling 
honesty, undoubted courage and high worth. He always 
spoke of his angel sister Nancy with reverent emotion."^^ 

"Simple as the home was, and hard as the work no doubt 
was at times, great as the privations may have been, the pic- 
ture we have of Nancy Hanks' life at this period is not an un- 
pleasant one. Her children were vigorous and happy, and 
evidently eager to learn. She had the joy of helping them and 
of seeing their growth. She was hospitable, too, and many an 
old neighbor has left reminiscences of visits to her home, one 
of whom said: 'The Lincolns' home at Knob Creek was a 
very happy one. I have lived in this part of the country all 
my Ufe and knew Nancy Llanks and Thomas Lincoln well. 
She was a loving and tender wife, adored by her husband and 
children, as she was by all who knew her.' "^' 

"Abraham Lincoln was not an exception to the rule that 
great men require that their mothers should be talented."" 

The marriage of Thomas Lincoln and Nancy Hanks, as 
certified by official records, was solemnized by the Rev. Jesse 

1' Everyday Life of Abraham Lincoln, p. 5. 

1* Nancy Hanks, p. 51. *' Nancy Hanks, pp. 89-90. 

15 Ibid., p. 92. " Ibid., p. 78. 



LINCOLN— FORTUNE'S FAVORITE 25 

Head, a minister of the Methodist Episcopal Church, on the 
1 2th of June, 1806, at the home of Richard Berry, near 
Beachland, in Washington County, Kentucky, and on the 12th 
of February, 1809, Abraham Lincoln, their second child, was 
born. 

No one in all that frontier region, if at that time informed 
that a great leader was soon to arise from among them, would 
have thought of Thomas and Nancy Lincoln as likely to be his 
parents. But since the fame of their son has filled the world, 
critics admit that this robust woodsman and his gifted and 
spiritually-minded wife possessed just the qualities which 
shone with splendor in their famous son. Fortune's favorite 
indeed was Abraham Lincoln to be favored by such parentage. 

But into this garden of God's own planting, into this 
Paradise of connubial felicity, the serpent in the guise of lov- 
ing loyalty entered and cast its breath of scandal upon the 
stainless names of the most highly favored of American 
mothers and sons. 

On the early pages of his biography of Lincoln, Wm. H. 
Herndon, with seeming indifference states that Lincoln told 
him that his mother, Nancy Hanks, was of illegitimate birth ; 
and in the same work Mr. Herndon also states that the same 
was true of Abraham Lincoln himself. As Herndon had been 
Lincoln's law partner and claimed to be devoted to his memory, 
his statements were given unquestioning credence by the pub- 
lic, and were accepted as true and given wide publicity by 
many writers. But the relatives and friends of Lincoln in 
Illinois, and in other portions of the country, at once and with 
great indignation declared the Herndon story to be utterly un- 
' true, and the most diligent research failed to find any founda- 
tion in fact or justification in reputable opinion for the de- 
famatory statement. 

Yet, in 1893, five years after this untruthful scandal was 
first published, J. J. Morse, Jr., after characterizing Herndon's 
statement as "more of malice than of faith," repeats it as 
authentic history, with grewsome details of his own imagining, 



26 LATEST LIGHT ON ABRAHAM LINCOLN 

and in terms far more revolting tlian are those employed by 
Herndon, And in other publications the Herndon story contin- 
ued to be repeated until it became almost generally accepted as 
true. 

In 1899 the whole Herndon fabrication was unmasked and 
proved to be false by Mrs. Caroline Hanks Hitchcock of Cam- 
bridge, Mass. Turning aside from the important work in 
which she was engaged, Mrs. Hitchcock devoted herself with 
untiring energy to the task of research in all the regions 
from which the Lincolns and the Hankses came. With un- 
flagging zeal and enthusiasm she patiently searched the records 
of counties, churches and families and at length gave to the 
world her priceless little volume, "Nancy Hanks," in which are 
published the authentic facts regarding the Hanks lineage, the 
marriage of Abraham Lincoln's parents and the birth of their 
children as found in the official public records and documents 
of unquestionable authenticity. The value of Mrs. Hitch- 
cock's contribution to the history of American pioneer life and 
especially to the fascinating story of Abraham Lincoln cannot 
be overestimated. Proving as it does that the revolting Hern- 
don story is utterly untrue it should at once and forever silence 
that harmful fabrication. 

Notwithstanding this, however, in 1906, seven years after 
it had thus been proven untrue, that story reappears in an 
edition of Herndon's work, a copy of which now lies before 
me. And during that same year Henry Binns, in a well-written 
volume, tells the true story of the birth of 'Nancy Hanks and of 
Abraham Lincoln, as shown by Mrs. Hitchcock to be correct, 
and then in a footnote on the same page refers to the Appendix 
of his book where the Herndon story is reproduced in full. 
How mysterious is the fascination which tliat Herndon story 
has for some people even after they know it is utterly untrue. 

In an introduction to Mrs. Hitchcock's book. Miss Ida M. 
Tarbell says: "To no woman whose name is of interest 
in American history has greater injustice been done by biogra- 
phers than to Nancy Hanks, the mother of Abraham Lincoln. 



LINCOLN— FORTUNE'S FAVORITE 27 

This injustice has been in repeating or allowing to go un- 
challenged, traditions of her early life of which there were no 
proofs." 

But that cruel "injustice" to the name and memory of 
the sainted Nancy Hanks has continued, by the credence given 
to the Herndon story and by its reproduction, until some of the 
most devoted admirers of Lincoln are even yet in darkness 
relative to these important matters. There now lies before me 
a volume which has been the most helpful of all the hundreds 
of Lincoln books I have read while preparing this work. Its 
able and learned author in his great work discloses an admira- 
tion for Lincoln approaching religious adoration. He is awed 
into reverence as he considers the material and spiritual nature 
of his hero whom he declares to be "one of the most wonderful 
beings that has appeared upon the earth." Yet this pure- 
minded writer speaks of Lincoln as "a weird and mysterious 
being who came into the world against convention." My heart 
sank when I realized the meaning and significance of those 
two words — "against convention" — and understood that, as 
objects take on the color of the glass through which the sun- 
shine falls upon them, so the mind of this Lincoln admirer 
had received the story of his hero's parentage through a 
medium stained with the Herndon scandal. And I then real- 
ized, as never before, the magnitude of the task of making 
amends for the shameful injustice which has been done the 
memory of our martyred President and his godly mother. A 
good beginning in that work has been made in Mrs. Hitch- 
cock's book, already cited. If given publicity by the pulpit, on 
the platform, in the schoolroom and by the press, as certainly 
should be the case, the authentic facts as laboriously gathered 
and published by this talented and cultured woman, will soon 
banish the Herndon harmful falsehoods to the darkness from 
which they came and to the oblivion which should be their 
doom. 

My own humble part in this work of restitution I have 
religiously sought to perform by exposing and fittingly charac- 



28 LATEST LIGHT ON ABRAHAM LINCOLN 

terizing the Herndon falsehoods, and by telHng the true story 
as it is recorded in this chapter. I crave and claim the co-oper- 
ation of all lovers of truth in aiding to give widest possible 
publicity to the facts herein stated. 

Prenatal Influence 

Abraham Lincoln was also favored by prenatal preparation 
for his great earthly mission. Scientists are just coming 
to a knowledge of the wondrous part in human procreation 
which the Book of God for centuries has ascribed to woman. 
Respecting this subject members of the medical profession are 
not in perfect accord. Some deny while others affirm the 
theory of prenatal influence. 

Dr. George Williamson says: "A child at the period of its 
first independent existence represents exactly the condition of 
the maternal parent during the months of nascency."^^ 

On May 8th, 19 13, in an address given at the University 
of Kansas, Dr. W. H. Carruth said: 'Tt is plain that pre- 
natal influences belong at the bottom to the same field as post- 
natal influences. . . . The temper of a colt or child can be 
affected by the way the mother is handled before the young is 
born. All this has not been recognized fully and clearly, but 
I believe it is undisputed today."^^ 

In Bible history are many illustrations of prenatal in- 
fluence. Moses, the greatest of all lawgivers, was born of 
slave parents in the depths of cruel and degrading bondage, 
and at a time when by royal edict all male children were 
ordered to be slain. But his mother by her calm confidence in 
God during the months immediately preceding his birth suc- 
ceeded in giving to her son a nature so exalted and purposeful 
that the attractions of the court of Pharaoh and his adoption 
into the family of that famous sovereign, did not lure him 
from his allegiance to Jehovah, nor cause him to be unfaith- 

18 Laws of Heredity, p. 219. 

19 Eugenics, Twelve University Lectures, p. 283. 



LINCOLN— FORTUNE'S FAVORITE 29 

ful to his chosen people. His forty years' seclusion in the 
dreary regions of Mount Horeb failed to diminish his fidelity 
to God or to weaken his faith in His promises. No leader ever 
was tried more severely than was he and none ever proved 
more constant and true. Considered in connection with the 
circumstances of his birth, Moses is a striking illustration of 
the power of prenatal influence, and a motherhood like that 
which produced this great man, if environment is not pro- 
nouncedly unfavorable, will enrich the world by contributions 
of exalted human qualities in posterity. 

The marvelous fidelity of Jeremiah during a period of 
darkness and despair, when kings were false and enemies 
were victorious, is explained by Jehovah's declaration: "Before 
thou camest forth out of the womb, I sanctified thee."'" Such 
prenatal influence can be secured in any age and cannot fail to 
result as in the case of this great Hebrew prophet. 

Elizabeth, the mother of John the Baptist, when informed 
that her devout life was to be crowned with motherhood, re- 
tired to the seclusion of the hills of Judah, and there for 
months quietly communed with God and "was filled with the 
Holy Ghost.""^ Therefore, it is said of her son that he was 
"filled with the Holy Ghost even from his mother's womb."" 

Ishmael was a calamitous product of prenatal influence. 
His father was a man of the most exalted nature, a model for 
every age, in character, fidelity and faith. But his mother 
was a hot-blooded Egyptian woman who, by indulging in 
bitterness of spirit and furious resentment during her period 
of expectancy gave to this son of Abraham a nature which 
caused him to be "a wild ass among men" with "his hand 
against every man and every man's hand against him." 

In striking contrast with the story of Hagar and Ishmael, 
so full of solemn warning, is the fascinating story of Hannah 
and her son Samuel, the most beloved and influential of all 
the Hebrew priests and prophets. Hannah's eager yearning 
for motherhood and her fervent prayer in the sacred taber- 
20 Jer. 1 : 15. ^^ Luke 1 : 41. 22 Luke i : 15. 



30 LATEST LIGHT ON ABRAHAM LINCOLN 

nacle for "a male child" whom she promised to consecrate to 
the service of God's house, indicate her high plane of woman- 
hood. And such a woman was Nancy Hanks Lincoln, the 

"Wilding lady still and true 
Who gave us Lincoln and never knew." 

As already shown she was a devout and unusually spirit- 
ually-minded Christian. During fragments of time snatched 
from pressing family cares and duties she diligently read 
the Word of God and kept in close and constant fellowship 
with Him by devout and earnest prayer. And Mr. Lincoln's 
acknowledgment of his conscious indebtedness to her for all 
he was and all he hoped to be was a fitting tribute to the one 
whom the world is coming to understand and appreciate at her 
true worth. 

As were Jochebed, Hannah and Elizabeth, as were count- 
less other women who became the mothers of noble men, so 
Nancy Hanks was fitted in body, soul and spirit to become 
the mother of one endowed with transcendent gifts and exalted 
character as was Abraham Lincoln, 

During the months preceding the birth of Abraham Lin- 
coln his mother's environment was such as an expectant 
mother should always have. There was no domestic discord 
in the Lincoln cabin to inflict a contentious spirit upon the 
coming child. Music and merriment had their rightful place 
in this pioneer household and the industrious wife, conscious 
of her high estate, faithfully attended to her daily duties with 
cheerfulness and joy. 

Some regard the advent of Abraham Lincoln upon the 
scene of human action as something "outside the chain of 
natural cause and effect," and as implying an unfathomable 
mystery. This, if true, would deprive us of the lessons to 
be learned from the story of his birth, his character and life. 
He furnishes a striking illustration of the possibilities of an 
earthly life at its best, and he stands before the world as the 
living embodiment of what God can accomplish through His 






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LINCOLN— FORTUNE'S FAVORITE 31 

children if permitted to have His way. Nowhere in history 
can there be found the story of a human life which more 
clearly and effectively illustrates the potency of prenatal in- 
fluence than does that of Abraham Lincoln and his mother. 
There never has been, nor will there ever be, another Abraham 
Lincoln. But there may and will be many others much like 
him if the lessons taught by his birth and character are 
learned and duly heeded by those for whom he lived and died. 

A Fortunate Beginning 

The conditions into which Abraham Lincoln entered at his 
birth were in every particular favorable. His parents were 
poor in worldly goods, but they were rich in the love and 
loving kindness which they lavishly bestowed upon him. 
Above all possible estimate it was fortunate for Abraham 
Lincoln, for the nation, and for all the world that he began 
life in such an atmosphere of peace as was that which filled 
the humble habitation of his early days. Between his devoted 
parents there was an affinity of spirit and a constancy of love 
and tenderness which in spite of seeming inhospitable con- 
ditions kept the infant's better nature always in comfort and 
content. Some, in considering this scene, think only of the 
earthen floor and the scant rough furniture ; but during those 
initial hours a higher power was ministering to this child of 
poverty with a skill which human hands have never known. 

True, there was physical discomfort in that cabin, but it 
made for sturdy growth of mind and body, and for the 
development of trust in things unseen. As the oak is tough- 
ened and made more fit for service by the cold blasts that beat 
against it with pitiless severity, so Abraham Lincoln was aided 
to become staunch and strong by the rigor of his early life. 

Near the cot on which the infant slept was his mother's 
Bible with the truths of which she was thoroughly familiar, 
and his childhood's first lessons from his mother's lips were 
the teachings of that Book. Thoroughly and well he learned 
those lessons for they were taught with fervency of soul by 



32 LATEST LIGHT ON ABRAHAM LINCOLN 

one who loved the sacred volume, and so effective was her 
work that before he learned to read the child knew from 
memory the pages she had read to him. His father heartily en- 
couraged the mother's efforts to teach her children religious 
truth, for though he w^as untaught by books and schools, 
Thomas Lincoln was a devout Christian. Prayer and Bible 
study were united in this home and the growing lad, under 
such tuition, grew in moral stature and strength even more 
rapidly than he gained in physical proportions and agility. 

Some have claimed that Mr. Lincoln's early life was full 
of hindering disadvantages in spite of which he achieved 
greatness by his own supreme and persevering efforts. His 
biographers, who were his private secretaries during all his 
Presidency, give the following interesting sidelight in con- 
nection with their record of his early pursuit of knowledge: 
"He could not afford to waste paper upon his original com- 
positions. He would sit by the fire at night and cover the 
wooden shovel with essays and arithmetical exercises, which he 
would shave off and then begin again. It is touching to think 
of this great spirited child battling year after year against his 
evil star, wasting his ingenuity upon devices and makeshifts, 
his intelligence starving for want of the simple appliances of 
education that are now offered gratis to the poorest and most 
indifferent."^' 

This passage undoubtedly represents the prevailing thought 
respecting the hardships in Lincoln's early life. But there was 
no hiatus in the plans for Abraham Lincoln's development and 
training. The obstacles he encountered were stepping stones 
which, when surmounted, raised him to a higher level, and by 
stimulating to greater efforts, accomplished in him great results 
in soul expansion and development of mind and body. Mr. 
Lincoln's poise of character, which has ever been the marvel 
of the world, was largely the product of his early struggles 
with the limitations of his lot, and his patient perseverance in 
turning to his advantage the most stubborn difficulties, 

23 Abraham Lincoln, A History, Vol. I., pp. 35-36. 




—Jt.'-g 'tT X* t -""'"'c^a^' J J«>^'>3ll»--!»a<'j'«i>i'^>a.Jg i ;jfe^ji><i 



CABIN IN WHICH ABRAHAM LINCOLN WAS BORN 




EARLY PURSUIT UF KNOWLEDGE 



LINCOLN— FORTUNE'S FAVORITE 33 

It is interesting and pleasing to think of Abraham Lincoln 
as winning great distinction by his own endeavors in spite 
of serious disadvantages; but it should not be forgotten that 
a higher Power participated in his development, and that the 
hardships and hindrances of his early and later life were 
parts of the work of preparing in him a hero of gigantic phys- 
ical proportions, with brain of massive measurements, brawn 
of giant strength, and will of adamant. 

President Lincoln's secretaries touch the core of the mat- 
ter in the statement that, "He was evidently of better and 
finer clay than his fellows even in those wild and ignorant 
days." Unquestionably he was. And that clay which without 
doubt had been brought into its primal form under favorable 
influences was afterwards beaten by adversity into greater 
purity and fitness for use, as a potter prepares choice material 
for a vessel of surpassing excellence. The blows seem cruel 
but they are really beneficent for they achieve the desired 
result. It is safe to assume that no lesson written with char- 
coal on a wooden shovel, and removed the next evening to 
prepare for another, was ever forgotten by this earnest 
student. And that seeming slow advance in learning thus at- 
tained was more rapid than it appeared, and was attended by a 
mental discipline rarely secured by less taxing methods and 
endeavors. Therefore, it is no disparagement of our educa- 
tional agencies to claim that Abraham Lincoln's disadvantages 
are to be numbered among the priceless assets of which he was 
the beneficiary. 

In these claims, so at variance with the ordinary views 
concerning Mr. Lincoln's early life, I am glad for the en- 
dorsement of the Hon. John D. Long, who aptly remarks: 
"There are those who express surprise that Lincoln was the 
product of what they deem the narrow and scanty environment 
from which he sprang. As well wonder at the giant of the 
forest, deep rooted, bathing its top in the upper air, fearless 
of scorch of sun or blast of tempest, sprung from the fertile 
soil and luxuriant growth of the virgin earth, and rich with 



34 LATEST LIGHT ON ABRAHAM LINCOLN 

the fragrance and glory of Nature's paradise. I can hardly 
think of a life more fortunate. . . . Where can be found a 
better preparation for an American career. To what one of 
those whom we call the favored youths of the land have not 
his splendid advantages of social position and university edu- 
cation sometimes seemed an obstacle rather than a help in the 
path that leads through the popular hedge to the popular ser- 
vice? Hard lines! Lincoln's is rather one of the illustriously 
fortunate careers of young men."^* 

Another, and not the least of the great favors bestowed 
upon Abraham Lincoln was his association with 

Strong Friends and Foes 

During the period in which Mr. Lincoln was coming into 
prominence, Illinois had in its political arena a large number 
of brilliant and promising young men. Some were just coming 
into distinction when death ended their careers of usefulness; 
others like Edward Baker, Mr. Lincoln's cherished and trusted 
friend, removed to other fields, but a larger group consisting 
among others of Douglas, Washburne, Stuart, Stephen Logan, 
Davis, Wentworth, Arnold, Gillespie, Trumbull, Shields, and 
Bryant remained arousing him to the herculean efforts which 
presaged and hastened his future masterful ability and great 
influence. Lincoln and Douglas from the start were in 
political hostility. Without his contests with the "Little 
Giant," Lincoln would not have reached the proportions he 
attained or the prominence to which he rose. Those who wit- 
nessed the titanic struggles between those two political gladia- 
tors soon discovered that from each encounter Mr. Lincoln re- 
tired with head more confidently lifted, and with a greater 
manifest disproportion between himself and his great antag- 
onist. 

And this continued until the day when Douglas, with 
grace and dignity held his rival's hat, and listened with ap- 
proving smiles and nods to his courageous and masterly in- 
2* Abraham Lincoln, The Tribute of a Century, pp. 319-322. 




STEPHEN A. DOUGLAS 



LINCOLN— FORTUNE'S FAVORITE 35 

augural address.* And the helpful influence of Douglas 
continued during the early months of Lincoln's Presidency 
and until his lamented death on the 3rd of June, 1861, closed 
their earthly fellowship. 

Douglas, with his great ability, high ambition, magnetic 
personality, and tireless energy and industry was the most 
helpful opponent with which kind Providence favored Abra- 
ham Lincoln. 

Some whom I have named above, and others of equal 
merit, formed a group with whom it was a priceless favor to 
be associated. Some were Mr. Lincoln's political antagonists, 
others were devoted friends, and all either by rivalry or en- 
couragement, stimulated his vigorous and growing powers to 
the endeavors which brought success. 

It was peculiarly fortunate that at the opportune period of 
his life his lot was cast with such a company of able associates 
and antagonists. 

Abraham Lincoln was favored of fortune in 

The Woman who Became his Wife 

Only a woman of tremendous force of character, superior 
intellectual gifts and attainments, and peculiarly fitted for her 
delicate task, could successfully have assisted him to prepare 
for and to accomplish his great work. From his native state, 
came just the wife he needed in the person of vivacious Mary 

* Respecting this incident there has been some question which is con- 
clusively settled by Colonel Henry Watterson of Kentucky, who was a 
member of Congress at the time and was one of the committee appointed 
to escort the new President to the place of inauguration. In his famous 
lecture, "Abraham Lincoln, Man inspired of God," Colonel Watterson 
says: 

"I accompanied the cortege that passed from the Senate Chamber to 
the vast portico of the capitol, and, as Mr. Lincoln removed his hat to 
face the vast multitude in front and below, I extended my hand to re- 
ceive it, but Judge Douglas, just beside me, reached over my outstretched 
arm and took the hat, holding it throughout the delivery of the inaugural 
address." Complete Works of Abraham Lincoln, Vol. IIL, p. XX. 



36 LATEST LIGHT ON ABRAHAM LINCOLN 

Todd, a woman of proud and noble lineage, extending back 
through many generations distinguished for the high qualities 
of their robust and rugged men and women. She was high- 
spirited, proud and ambitious, of charming personality, and 
of great force of character. 

She had received excellent educational culture and train- 
ing, and was in every way fitted for helpful companionship 
with a man of Mr. Lincoln's tastes and talents. Her affections 
were ardent, and she was passionately devoted to her family 
and to her personal friends. With unwavering confidence she 
believed in her husband and foresaw for him a distinguished 
career long before others recognized his worth. Her talents 
and temperament were the exact complement of her husband's, 
and aided him to develop a strong and forceful personality. 

Her high ambition and unconquerable will assisted in hold- 
ing him to his tasks in spite of difficulties and discouragements, 
before which, without her aid, even his tenacious nature might 
have faltered and failed. 

His prolonged meditations upon the evils of slavery, and 
his realization of the strength with which It was entrenched, 
and the vigor and determination with which It was and would 
continue to be defended, caused him seasons of painful melan- 
choly verging on despondency; but her exuberance of spirits 
came to his relief at all such times of need and kept him firm 
In the thickest of the fight, and confident of ultimate victory. 

In his quiet quest for a satisfying religious faith, he was 
encouraged and aided by her keen spiritual insight and Chris- 
tian experience and life. She was always by his side at public 
religious services, thus expressing her sympathy and fellowship 
with him in the unquestioning confidence In God and firm pur- 
pose to do His will for which he was so distinguished. 

The assertion of her rightful authority, If at times seem- 
ingly imperious and severe; her insistence upon the strict 
observance of the amenities of life; and her pronounced dis- 
pleasure at anything which met her disapproval, were doubt- 
less very helpful In making Mr. Lincoln the courteous gentle- 




MRS. MARY TODD LINCOLN 



LINCOLN— FORTUNE'S FAVORITE 37 

man he became, and in giving him his remarkable mental and 
moral poise. 

To fill acceptably the station of First Lady of the Land, 
Mrs. Lincoln encountered greater difficulties than had any who 
preceded her in that position. Being of southern blood, birth 
and education, and having several relatives in the Confederate 
Army, she encountered the spirit of intolerance which pre- 
vailed at Washington during the Rebellion. With many it 
seemed impossible to regard and treat with common justice 
those whom they suspected were less intense than themselves 
in loyalty to the Union cause. This led to serious misrepre- 
sentations, and even to the circulation of falsehoods respecting 
Mrs. Lincoln's attitude toward the war. 

Owing to the dangers which constantly threatened the 
nation, and the measureless suffering and sorrow resulting 
from the war, there were few social functions held at the 
Executive Mansion during Mr. Lincoln's Presidency; there- 
fore, Mrs. Lincoln was not afforded the opportunity to win 
for herself the social distinction which she was so admirably 
fitted to achieve and hold. 

Had conditions been normal during the Presidency of 
Abraham Lincoln, his brilliant and accomplished wife w^ould 
have won from all the admiration and praise which those who 
knew her intimately freely bestowed. However, the serious 
conditions caused by the war which closed to Mrs. Lincoln the 
door of social distinction, opened to her a door into the realm 
of loving ministration which she gladly entered, and in which, 
with generous heart and bountiful beneficence, she wrought for 
sick and wounded, in hospitals and in military camps. 

The love which Mr. Lincoln cherished for his wife, and 
his appreciation of her high ambitions, and helpful ministra- 
tions, were indicated by the promptness with which, when in- 
formed by wire of his first nomination as a candidate for 
President, he turned from enthusiastic friends, and hastened to 
his Springfield home to be the first to inform her of the great 
honor which had been conferred upon him. 



38 LATEST LIGHT ON ABRAHAM LINCOLN 

Of like significance was his wired request for her to wit- 
ness with him the closing scenes of the Rebellion. And his 
beloved and devoted wife was the only one invited by the 
happy Chieftain to join him in a restful ride on the last day of 
his earthly life. With unspeakable delight at the prospect of 
early and abiding peace, on that glad day he disclosed to her, as 
he did to no one else, his fond hopes and purposes for the 
years that should follow the close of his Presidential term. 
And the tragedy which a few hours later snatched him from 
her side, failed to break the bond by which their souls were 
held in union. For with that love which only ardent natures 
know she kept her vigil close beside him, even when her heart 
was breaking with anguish, and her reason was almost de- 
throned. And when informed that he had gone, her intense 
nature found expression in her memorable words, "Taken 
from us at the time the country needs him more than ever 
before." 

I have seen them side by side at public worship; I have 
seen them close together at the White House, and I always 
think of them as evermore inseparable in the felicity and 
fellowship of Heaven, as they were in their struggles and 
achievements here below. 

The world will never know the full extent of its indebted- 
ness to Mary Todd Lincoln for what Abraham Lincoln was, 
and for what he was permitted to accomplish. Neither with- 
out the other was, or ever could have been, complete. The 
work which he achieved was hers as well as his, since by their 
union that work was made possible. And hers should be the 
love and gratitude which the nation gladly gives to its most 
worthy benefactors. 

Abraham Lincoln was favored in the 

Gospel Ministers 

who came into his life. There were many such, some of 
whom deserve special mention, for at most auspicious times, 



LINCOLN— FORTUNE'S FAVORITE 39 

and by wisely chosen methods they gave him welcome and 
helpful religious counsel and instruction. 

A gospel minister suited to his needs came into his life at 
the time Edward, his second son, was called away by death. 
No ordinary preacher could have found admittance to the inner 
realm where this stricken father wept in great sorrow. It 
required a man of high intellectual endowment, thorough edu- 
cation and deep human sympathy, a man whose heart was ten- 
der and loving, successfully to minister to Mr. Lincoln in 
spiritual things and to bring consolation to his wounded heart 
at that time of sore bereavement. Such a man was Rev. 
James Smith, D.D., pastor of the First Presbyterian Church 
of Springfield, one of the most esteemed, beloved and trusted 
of all the gospel ministers whom Mr. Lincoln knew. 

There was a time in Mr. Lincoln's life when he sorely 
needed, though he was then unconscious of that need, a "son 
of thunder," to proclaim to him the gospel of salvation with, 
tremendous eloquence and power, and to cause him to realize 
his need of spiritual regeneration. Such a Boanerages was 
Rev. James F. Jaquess, D.D., pastor of the First Methodist 
Episcopal Church in Springfield, with whom Mr. Lincoln came 
in contact in the prime of his growing manhood. Dr. Jaquess' 
great courage and manifest sincerity won Mr. Lincoln's high 
esteem, and by his burning eloquence the rising young attorney 
was deeply moved and edified. 

Very helpful to Mr. Lincoln likewise was the influence of 
Rev. N. W. Miner, D.D., a Springfield Baptist minister, and 
for many years one of the intimate friends of the Lincoln 
family. 

Brief, but of great influence for good, was the visit at 
the White House of Dr. Francis Vinton, rector of Christ 
Church in New York City. He was a man of extraordinary 
personality and one of the most popular preachers of the 
Church in which he had long served as a rector and in which 
he once declined a bishopric. Soon after the death of "Willie," 
Mr. Lincoln's third son. Dr. Vinton, by invitation, had an 



40 LATEST LIGHT ON ABRAHAM LINCOLN 

interview with the disconsolate President and aided him to 
realize the continued life of those who pass before us to the 
better world. No spiritual adviser of the President ever heard 
from him such utterances of joy as did this sympathetic and 
heavenly-minded rector during this interview. 

It was fortunate that President Lincoln secured a pew 
in the New York Avenue Presbyterian Church of which Rev. 
P. D. Gurley, D.D., was the pastor ! Two great men met when 
the President and his pastor clasped hands in friendly greet- 
ing. A man of large proportions physically and otherwise 
was Dr. Gurley, and the President soon discovered that he 
had in him a counsellor adapted to his needs. Dr. Gurley's 
great strength in discourse, his faithful teaching of the simple 
gospel truths, his occasional excursions into the realm of 
metaphysics, and the prominence given in his preaching to the 
sovereignty of God enabled him to give just what Mr. 
Lincoln needed at the time. Probably no one was more 
frequently called into counsel concerning great governmental 
issues and movements than was the President's beloved pastor 
Dr. Gurley; and he came to know the mind of Mr. Lincoln 
as few men did. 

In his quest for infallible divine truth he was favored 
with 

A Period of Doubt 

Those who have claimed that Mr. Lincoln was an un- 
believer have, by so doing, unwittingly helped to convince 
thoughtful and candid persons that his was an intelligent faith, 
firmer and securer after doubt and investigation than before. 
A man like Abraham Lincoln could scarcely be expected to 
come to an intelligent, satisfying religious faith without a 
period of doubt. By temperament he was a logician ; he rev- 
elled in the higher mathematics and was at home in studies 
requiring a major and minor premise for a satisfactory con- 
clusion. 

Such men as he always pursue the path of honest inquiry 







Tablecloth now in author's collection. 



LINCOLN— FORTUNE'S FAVORITE 41 

with apprehension of disappointing unbelief ; but their honest 
quest for truth adds to the strength of final faith. The eye 
that sees the pole star of truth in the murkiest skies has been 
trained and developed in the darkness of unbelief, and the 
ability thus clearly to see and believe the truth is produced by 
persevering efforts to escape from doubt. 

It is not difficult to understand why staunch believers 
usually pass through a period of doubt before reaching a 
strong and settled faith. Christian faith is belief in the super- 
natural and it lays hold upon, and trusts in that which is un- 
seen; it rests on that which eludes all senuous cognition. 
"Whom having not seen we love ; in whom though now ye see 
him not yet believing ye rejoice with joy unspeakable and full 
of glory."^^ With persons of Mr. Lincoln's temperament it is 
difficult to exercise such faith. 

With some a period of doubt is inevitable because "with 
the heart man believeth unto righteousness." Intellectually 
they accept the teachings of Christianity but they cannot exer- 
cise heart-faith because they do not desire salvation. They 
are satisfied with their lot. They are happy in the enjoyment 
of health and prosperity, and therefore they are not attracted 
by invitations to a life of sacrifice and self-denial. But when 
these things fail, their hearts turn for consolation to the invita- 
tions and promises of the gospel and they become staunch and 
steadfast believers. For these and other reasons many of the 
most distinguished leaders reach the high level of unquestion- 
ing faith by a winding pathway that leads through the dark 
valley of doubt. And with all such, faith was made stronger 
and more effective by the process of doubting inquiry. 

Some of the most distinguished Bible characters, accord- 
ing to the scriptural record, came to their great faith through 
a period of unbelief. Abraham, Moses, Gideon, Isaiah and 
Paul were stubborn doubters. Abraham doubted God's abil- 
ity to fulfill His promises. Moses aroused divine displeasure 
by his unbelieving parley with Jehovah. Gideon required re- 

35 1 Peter i : 8. 



42 LATEST LIGHT ON ABRAHAM LINCOLN 

peated proofs before he believed. The lips of Isaiah were 
touched by a live coal before he responded to God's call, and in 
the blinding, bewildering glare of the Damascus vision Paul 
came to a knowledge of the truth. 

Abraham Lincoln's cast of mind was much like that of 
Thomas. He could reason and thus reach rational conclusions. 
But he could not, without a process of careful investigation, 
accept a supernatural truth. Yet he was honest and tremen- 
dously in earnest. And he was as prompt as was Thomas to 
accept the evidence which was given, and as emphatic in the 
declaration of his faith. 

His Religious Belief 

The climax of all the favors kind fortune bestowed upon 
Abraham Lincoln was his splendid religious faith. What he 
became and what he achieved was largely the product of his 
belief in things unseen and eternal. His political affiliations 
and activities, the prosecution of his professional work and 
his daily life were determined by his religious faith. So ef- 
fective was that faith that in all human history, apart from 
the story of the Man of Galilee, there is not the record of a 
more exalted character than was seen in Abraham Lincoln. 

What was the faith that wrought such marvelous and 
desirable results? That question I propose in succeeding chap- 
ters of this work fully to answer by Mr. Lincoln's own declar- 
ations, and by the testimony of "a cloud of witnesses." 



II 

LINCOLN'S PERSONAL APPEARANCE 

IN a recent conversation with an esteemed friend, an en- 
terprising, successful business man, I expressed an 
ardent, long-cherished wish, that there might be given 
to the public, correct information concerning the personal ap- 
pearance of Abraham Lincoln. 

"What difference does it make," inquired my friend, 
"whether he was gawky, awkward and homely, as is generally 
believed, or of superior physical construction, rare grace of 
movement and great beauty, as you so confidently claim ? We 
know what he said and what he accomplished, why should we 
care to know how he looked and acted?" 

Without seeming to notice this remark, and with an 
apology for the abrupt digression, I said : "Did I ever tell you 
that during all the years of my residence in Washington, there 
was on one of the panels of the rotunda in the Capitol, a mag- 
nificent picture of 'De Soto Discovering the Mississippi' with 
the Stars and Stripes floating over his head ?" 

"Is it possible?" exclaimed my friend in great astonish- 
ment. "The American flag in the picture of an event that 
occurred more than two hundred years before there was an 
American flag! Why was such a caricature permitted to dis- 
figure the wall of that beautiful room?" 

"Why not," I answered, "what difference does it make? 
We know that De Soto, the Spanish explorer, did discover the 
Mississippi in 1541, but why should we care what flag appears 
in a picture commemorating that event!" 

"We should care," was the answer, "for a historical picture 
should be true to the facts." 

"It certainly should," I replied, "and the picture of the 

43 



44 LATEST LIGHT ON ABRAHAM LINCOLN 

personal appearance of Abraham Lincoln as he is seen in the 
public mind should also be true to the facts, and that picture 
as now seen by the world is shockingly false. The De Soto 
picture as first painted was during later years made historically 
truthful by the appearance of the Spanish flag where the stars 
and stripes had been." 

At this point my friend and I came into perfect accord 
and he has since been enthusiastic in his desire and effort 
to cause the public to understand that between the inner and 
the outer Abraham Lincoln there was complete harmony; 
that the spirit and character which for half a century have 
been the admiration of the world were not more beautiful and 
pleasing than were his physical construction and appearance. 

To the work of showing that such was the case, I am 
devoting the succeeding pages of this chapter. My own per- 
sonal observations of Mr. Lincoln's appearance and bearing 
will be given in connection with statements of persons who 
were for years closely associated with him, and from the testi- 
mony of art as interpreted by some of the most competent ex- 
perts. This, it is hoped, will introduce to the reader Abraham 
Lincoln, as he actually looked and acted. 

Mr. Lincoln's great height was the first of his physical 
characteristics to be noticed when coming into his presence. 
This never lost its impressiveness. At the first, and all subse- 
quent meetings with him, seeing him alone or in a small or 
large company, looking upon him from a distance or in his im- 
mediate presence, at bright noonday or in the dim twilight, 
the first and abiding impression was a sense of his imposing 
height. 

His exact height according to the measurement by Car- 
penter, the artist, was six feet three and a half inches "in 
his stocking feet," or six feet four and a half inches with his 
boots on. He appeared to be two or three inches taller than 
that when standing upon a platform delivering an address. 
John G. Nicolay, who for years knew Mr. Lincoln intimately 
in Illinois and was his chief private secretary during his 



LINCOLN'S PERSONAL APPEARANCE 45 

Presidency, says: "It must be borne in mind that Lincoln's 
height was extraordinary. A six-footer is a tall man. Put 
four inches on top of that and you have a figure by no means 
common. There are few such men in the world."^ 

Mr. Lincoln was as erect as an Indian, with not the least 
inclination to stoop at the shoulders as so many writers have 
stated. As Gutzon Borglum, the distinguished sculptor, says, 
"his neck does not rest on his shoulders. It rises from them 
with an erectness and an alertness that is unique." This fea- 
ture of Mr. Lincoln's construction accentuated his great height 
and contributed largely to the impressiveness of his appearance. 
I never saw him at close range without being impressed by the 
absence from his neck of wrinkles, as if it were pressed down 
upon his shoulders, and also the peculiar branching out and 
downward into the shoulders of strong, bracing sinews like 
the swelling out of the roots of a sturdy oak. This is seen in 
the famous life-mask bust by Leonard W. Volk. Mr. Lin- 
coln's unusual height always lingered in the memory of those 
who saw him, after other features of his personal appearance 
were forgotten. The climax of his stature was his massive 
coronal of jet-black hair which covered his marvelous head. 

In describing Mr. Lincoln's appearance as he rode down 
Broadway, in New York, on his way to Washington to be in- 
augurated as President, Dr. Theodore L. Cuyler says: "He 
stood up in a barouche, holding on with his hand to the seat 
of the driver. His towering figure was filled out by a long 
blue coat and a heavy cape which he wore. On his bare head 
rose a thick mass of black hair — the crown which nature gave 
to her king. . . . The great patriot-president moving slowly 
on toward the conflict, the glory and the martyrdom that were 
reserved for him still remains in my memory as the most 
august and majestic figure that my eyes have ever beheld."^ 

Dr. Henry Eyster Jacobs evidently shared Dr. Cuyler's 
impressions for he speaks of Lincoln "as the tallest and the 

1 The Century, Vol. 20, p. 932. 

2 Recollections of a Long Life, pp. 141-142. 



46 LATEST LIGHT ON ABRAHAM LINCOLN 

grandest man in the procession." The impression made by 
Mr. Lincoln's height upon the brilliant young journalist when 
he first met him is revealed as follows by Mr. James R. Gil- 
more of the New York Tribune: "Mr. Lincoln was exceedingly 
tall, and so gaunt that he seemed even above his actual height 
of six feet four inches ; but he was not, as very tall men often 
are, ungainly in either manner or attitude. He had an air of 
unstudied ease, a kind of careless dignity that well became his 
station." 

Mr. Thomas D. Jones, a Cincinnati sculptor, went to 
Springfield in December, i860, to make a bust of the newly 
elected President, and in 1871 published in the Cincinnati 
Commercial an account of his first view of Lincoln at that 
time, which Nicolay copied in an article in the before-cited 
Century Magazine, as follows: "He was surrounded by his 
nearest and dearest friends, his face illuminated, or in common 
parlance, lighted up. He was physically an athlete of the 
first order. He could lift with ease a thousand pounds, five 
hundred in each hand. In height six feet four inches, and 
weighed one hundred and seventy-six pounds. He was a spare, 
bony and muscular man, which gave him that great and untir- 
ing tenacity of endurance during his laborious administration." 
In the same article Mr. Jones quotes Mr. Lincoln, who 
was usually so disinclined to speak of himself, as saying: "All 
I had to do was to extend one hand to a man's shoulder, and 
with weight of body and strength of arms give him a trip 
that generally sent him sprawling on the ground, which would 
so astonish him as to give him a quietus." 

The sculptor adds, "Well might he send them sprawling, 
his arms were very long and powerful and his great strength 
and height were calculated to make him a peerless antagonist." 
Hon. Gideon Welles, Secretary of the Navy, although he 
had been for four years intimately associated with President 
Lincoln, as a member of his Cabinet, states in his diary that 
he had no realization of his great strength until he saw his 
bare arms as he lay upon his dying bed. 




LINCOLN IN 1861 

From a painting by J. L. G. Ferris, designed to represent the raising of 
the flag on Independence Hall, Philadelphia, by Abraham Lincoln on 
the morning of February 22, 1861. By courtesy of the artist and Ger- 
lach-Barklow Co. 



LINCOLN'S PERSONAL APPEARANCE 47 

A writer in tlie Philadelphia Evening Bulletin of Novem- 
ber 14th, i860, says: "The beholder felt that here was a strong 
man, a person of character and power." 

Nicolay reproduces this statement of the Bulletin in his 
magazine article before cited and in referring to Mr. Lincoln's 
great height declares that "it was a stature which of itself 
would be hailed in any assembly as one of the outward signs 
of leadership." 

In prosecuting the critical and prolonged investigations 
by which he was preparing for the production of his famous 
Lincoln statue which Mr. Charles P. Taft and wife recently 
presented to Cincinnati, George Gray Bernard reached the 
conclusion that Lincoln "was probably the most powerful 
physical being known to the frontier life." This opinion of 
tlie distinguished sculptor is corroborated by many declarations 
of men who were closely associated with Lincoln in Illinois 
and it explains his own statements before cited respecting 
his methods and success in vanquishing those who ventured 
to engage with him in physical encounters. 

His great physical strength and agility were silent but 
potential influences combining with his heroic measurements 
to produce such profound impressions upon all who met him. 
It was not necessary that those who were in his presence should 
know of his great physical powers in order to feel the power 
of his personality. Horace Greeley, while criticising his ad- 
ministration, refused to hold a conference with him because he 
never could oppose or disagree with him when in his presence. 
Back of his imposing physical proportions, his marvelous eyes, 
his manifest sincerity and the pleasing tones of his voice in 
conversation, was the power-house of his great strength, mak- 
ing all else effective. 

Col. A. K. McClure, of Philadelphia, one of the ablest and 
most influential political leaders of those times, states that 
when he "first met Lincoln at his home in Springfield, soon 
after his election as President in i860, his heart sank within 
him, as he remembered that this was the man chosen by a 



48 LATEST LIGHT ON ABRAHAM LINCOLN 

great nation to become its ruler in the gravest period of its 
history." But he adds, "Before half an hour had passed I 
learned not only to respect but indeed to reverence the man." 

Mr. Lincoln had invited Colonel McClure to visit him for 
consultation, and had himself ansvv^ered the doorbell and re- 
ceived him when he arrived at seven o'clock in the evening; 
but in his attire he made not the least preparation for the com- 
ing of his distinguished caller. 

Just previous to Colonel McClure's visit Mr. Lincoln had 
invited General Simon Cameron to become a member of his 
Cabinet. This was very objectionable to Colonel McClure, 
and during the interview Mr. Lincoln made no concessions to 
the Colonel concerning the matter. Yet, with this serious dis- 
advantage, together with the unfavorable first impression be- 
fore mentioned, Mr. Lincoln, during that evening interview, 
won the confidence, esteem and love of Colonel McClure to 
such a degree that he remained one of his most devoted friends 
and supporters until the day of his death. 

Judge Whitney, who for years was closely associated with 
Lincoln in his law practice in Illinois, and who never failed 
to give him the full measure of his loyal and earnest support, 
tells of his first impressions of Lincoln, as follows: "While 
court was in session Lincoln came straggling carelessly in. 
His face divested of his usual melancholy garb, and apparently 
in a humor to take life easy and gaily for the present moment. 
I noticed his intellectual countenance and especially his eyes, 
so clearly indicative of deep reflection, at the first glance. I 
mentally pronounced him to be a great man at once. I never 
saw any man who impressed me so highly, at first sight, as 
Abraham Lincoln."^ 

Of his silent, involuntary influence upon those with whom 
he mingled, Francis Grierson says: "Lincoln's presence infused 
into the mixed and uncertain throng something spiritual and 
supernormal. His looks, his words, his voice, his attitude, 
were like a magical essence dropped into the seething cauldron 
3 Life on the Circuit with Lincoln, p. 30. 



LINCOLN'S PERSONAL APPEARANCE 49 

of politics, reacting against the foam, calming the surface 
and letting the people sec to the bottom. It did not take him 
long."^ 

William O. Stoddard, who is still living, was one of 
President Lincoln's private secretaries, and in one of his 
valuable literary works makes the following interesting and 
instructive statements: "One strong impression was left upon 
my mind indelibly. I saw him on various occasions, under 
varied circumstances, surrounded by or in conference with 
the foremost men of his day. Among them were his Cabinet 
officers, senators, congressmen, jurists, governors of states, 
scholars, literary men, military and naval celebrities, foreign 
ambassadors. Of many of these men I had myself formed 
previously even exaggerated estimates. I took note, however, 
of one inevitable unfailing phenomenon. Every man of them 
seemed suddenly to diminish in size the moment he in any 
manner came into comparison with Mr. Lincoln. Another 
curious thing was that all the really ablest men among them 
were aware, consciously or unconsciously, of the superior 
strength confronting them."' 

My own observations and experiences relative to the matter 
here mentioned by Mr. Stoddard were identical with his, as 
stated by him herein, with such force and clearness. Upon 
all occasions it was the same when Mr. Lincoln was standing 
or moving about with other men, he was absolutely and always 
in a class by himself, as was realized by those who saw him in 
company and as shown by all photographs In which he ap- 
pears as one of a group. In a picture taken in front of an 
army tent, between a Union general and a detective, his superi- 
ority in personal appearance is impressively shown. Perhaps 
that superiority is seen more clearly In his picture taken with a 
larger company consisting chiefly of officers In McClellan's 
army before Antletam. In these, as In all similar pictures 
as well as in living groups before his death, the towering 

*The Valley of Shadows, p. 200. 
» Lincoln at Work, pp. 9-10. 



50 LATEST LIGHT ON ABRAHAM LINCOLN 

figure first attracted attention, but it was an indefinable 
majesty of being and bearing that made him continue as the 
center of attraction wherever he appeared. 

At his second inauguration as President, Mr. Lincoln's 
superiority in personal appearance to all other public men of 
his day was seen with great distinctness. Never did he appear 
so august and imposing, so magnificent and masterful as upon 
that occasion, surrounded as he was by a large company of 
the most distinguished and fine-looking men ever assembled in 
one gathering during the history of the nation. An extended 
account of that event and of his appearance and movements 
upon that occasion can be found elsewhere in this work. 

But imposing as was his appearance when mingling with 
other men, it was still more so when he was addressing an 
audience upon a subject in which he was deeply interested. 
As Nicolay says: "As a standing figure he was seen to best 
advantage on the orator's platform. At certain moments, 
when, in summing up a connected series of logical proposi- 
tions, he brought them together into a demonstration of un- 
answerable argument, his form would straighten up to full 
height, the head would be slightly thrown back, and the face 
become radiant with the consciousness of intellectual victory, 
making his personal appearance grandly imposing and im- 
pressive."® 

Francis Grierson, who heard Lincoln In his debates with 
Douglas, gives the following thrilling word picture of his ap- 
pearance on those occasions: "He stood like some solitary 
pine on a lonely summit, very tall, very dark, very gaunt, 
and very rugged, his swarthy features stamped with a sad 
serenity, and the instant he began to speak the ungainly mouth 
lost its heaviness, the half-listless eyes attained a wondrous 
power, and the people stood bewildered and breathless under 
the natural magic of the strangest, most original personality 
known to the English-speaking world since Robert Burns. 
Every look of the deep-set eyes, every movement of the promi- 

« The Century, Vol 20, p. 933- 




PRESIDENT ABRAHAM LINCOLN 
and Detective Allan Pinkerton in General McClernand's tent before Antietam. 



LINCOLN'S PERSONAL APPEARANCE 51 

nent jaw, every wave of the hard gripping hand, produced an 
impression, and before he had spoken twenty minutes the con- 
viction took possession of thousands that here was the pro- 
phetic man of the present and the poHtical saviour of the 
future."' 

Equally graphic, more scientific and faultlessly faithful 
to truth, is the following from Truman Bartlett, the famous 
American sculptor: When speaking "waves of righteous in- 
dignation came sweeping over him. His body was trans- 
formed and his face was lighted with a mysterious inner 
light. The dull, listless expression dropped like a mask. The 
melancholy shadow disappeared in a twinkling. The eyes 
began to sparkle, the mouth to smile, and the whole counte- 
nance was wreathed in animation. The hard lines faded out 
of his face and the emotion seemed to diffuse itself all over 
him. His sad face of a sudden became radiant; he seemed 
like one inspired. 

"The act of expressing a great sentiment or concluding a 
fine period, transformed Lincoln into beauty and nobility of 
bearing. He often quivered all over with emotion nearly 
stifling his utterance. 

"All agree in stating that he had wonderful vertical elas- 
ticity and could, while speaking, stretch up to an unwonted 
height, or appear to do so, which as artists know, is a quality 
seen only in people of the highest physical construction. These 
things suggest a splendidly sensitive, responsive and powerful 
system of nerves, a muscular organization of a rare and 
superior kind, an admirable body and a deep harmony between 
the outer and inner man."^ 

The great debates with Douglas attracted to Illinois promi- 
nent political leaders and others who were just beginning 
careers of public service. Among the latter was Hon. James 
M. Ashley of Ohio, who, at that time, was conducting his 
first campaign for a seat in Congress. He was a strong, am- 

T The Valley of Shadows, p. 198. 

8 The Portraits of Lincoln, pp. 15, 16, 18. 



52 LATEST LIGHT ON ABRAHAM LINCOLN 

bitious young man and an ardent supporter of Chase as a 
candidate for the Presidency. He had never seen Lincoln but 
immediately after the October election he hastened to Illinois 
just in time to hear the last of the memorable debates. I have 
today a vivid recollection of the irrepressible enthusiasm for 
Lincoln with which General Ashley returned to his Toledo 
home, and to the people who had just chosen him as their 
representative in Congress. He remained loyal to Chase, how- 
ever, as the first choice of Ohio for the Presidential nomina- 
tion two years later, but his high estimate of Lincoln's ability 
soon became known throughout the state and had much to do 
in producing the condition of public thought that caused the 
votes of four Ohio delegates in the Chicago convention to be 
changed from Chase to Lincoln, by which the latter on the 
third ballot was nominated for President. Although it was at 
the close of that long and taxing struggle, Lincoln's vitality 
and strength were sufficient to accomplish that result and to 
cause General Ashley at the close of his distinguished and use- 
ful life to say: "When I heard Mr. Lincoln proclaim at Alton 
'that it was a question between right and wrong' his face 
glowed as if tinged with a halo, and to me he looked the 
prophet of hope and joy." 

The impressiveness and force of Mr. Lincoln's heroic 
stature was accentuated by the symmetry and grace of his 
physical construction. In size and form the members of his 
body were aU in perfect proportion. Considered separately 
they seemed ponderous, but the size of each one was in fault- 
less harmony with the heroic figure of which it formed a 
part. 

Some writers have unfortunately referred to "his long 
arms" and "his large hands and feet," forgetting as it seems 
that Mr. Lincoln was a very large man and would have been 
ill-formed if any of his members had been of less dimensions. 
Nicolay says: "The first impression will naturally be that a 
man with such long limbs and large and prominent features 
could not possibly be handsome; and this would be true of a 



LINCOLN'S PERSONAL APPEARANCE 53 

man of ordinary height. Long limbs and large and strong 
features were fitted to this unusual stature, and harmonized 
perfectly with it; there was no effect of disproportion or 
grotesqueness."® 

Sculptors and critics are agreed in characterizing Lin- 
coln's hands as marvelously shapely and beautiful. Borglum 
says: "His hands were not disproportionately large. In his 
early life hard labor had developed the palms of his hands, 
and the thick muscle part of his thumb was full and strong; 
but this shrank later to the thumb of a literary man." 

Bartlett says: "The photograph of Lincoln and Little Tad 
shows the President's great style of hand and its splendid 
articulation with the wrist. A hand fit not only for the first 
and greatest American, but in every way worthy to write, as he 
did, literature that is nothing less than biblical in its majestic 
simplicity."^" 

Bernard says: "Next to the face, as an index of Lincoln's 
character, came his hands. The fingers are long and tapering, 
and the lines that divide them are almost straight and parallel. 
The hands suggest sensitiveness, silence and repose." 

His shoulders were broad and his chest massive, like those 
of his muscular father. His arms and legs were longer than 
were Thomas Lincoln's, for he was of much greater height. 
All sculptors who have made a careful study of Mr. Lincoln's 
physical form are united in the declaration that he was of 
very rare and symmetrical construction. Very tall men are 
usually clumsy and awkward in movement, but it was quite 
otherwise with Mr. Lincoln. Bartlett quotes approvingly the 
following from Nicolay: "There was neither oddity, eccen- 
tricity, awkwardness nor grotesqueness in his face, figure or 
movement. On the contrary he was prepossessing in appear- 
ance when the entire man was fairly considered, mentally and 
physically, his unusual height and proportion, and the general 
movement of body and mind. His walk was vigorous, elastic, 

^ The Century, Vol. 20, p. 932. 
I*' Portraits of Lincoln, p. 33. . 



54 LATEST LIGHT ON ABRAHAM LINCOLN 

easy, rather quick, firm and dignified; no shuffling or hesi- 
tancy."" 

Hon. H. C. Deming describes "his posture and carriage" 
as being "with the grace of unstudied and careless ease rather 
than of cultivated airs and highbred pretensions." My own 
recollections are that seated or standing he had an artless and 
unconscious dignity of which there could be no counterfeit or 
imitation, and every movement however slight or considerable 
was gracefully pleasing and impressive. 

There have been published some very careless and mislead- 
ing statements concerning Mr. Lincoln's habits of dress. 

Hon. Joseph H. Choate, the distinguished lawyer, states- 
man and diplomat, was a young man when Lincoln delivered 
the Cooper Institute address and in his personal reminiscences 
of that event in describing Lincoln's appearance he says: "His 
great stature signalled him out from the crowd. His clothes 
hung awkwardly on his giant frame." 

One of the members of the Young Men's Central Republi- 
can Union, under whose auspices that address was delivered, 
in a recently published account of that affair writes: "His 
dress that night before a New York audience was the most un- 
becoming that a fiend's ingenuity could have devised for a tall, 
gaunt man — a black frock coat, ill setting and short for him 
in the body, skirt and arms — a rolling collar low down, dis- 
closing his long, thin, shrivelled throat, uncovered and ex- 
posed." 

These two descriptions of Mr. Lincoln's attire at the time 
of that most important event in his pre-presidential life are 
fairly representative of similar statements which have been 
published in periodicals and books. No such severe character- 
ization of Mr. Lincoln's dress upon that momentous occasion 
was published at the time of the event, nor until after it had 
become the prevailing custom for writers to exercise their best 
gifts upon efforts to disparage Mr. Lincoln's personal ap- 
pearance. Some writers seem to think that a true and faithful 
11 Portraits of Lincoln, p. 12. 



LINCOLN'S PERSONAL APPEARANCE 55 

picture of the inner Lincoln, and his achievements, must have 
for a background a shocking caricature of the outer Lincoln. 
Hence, his dress has been made the subject of most unfortunate 
misrepresentations of which the foregoing are fair samples. 

It is not at all probable that Mr. Lincoln was to any degree 
carelessly or unbecomingly dressed at the time he made the 
Cooper Institute speech. He realized fully that it was an oc- 
casion of very great importance to his own political prefer- 
ment. His ambition at that time was to be chosen as Vice- 
President at the next national election. He was aware that 
those who were seeking the nomination of Seward as the 
republican candidate for President were planning to have him 
selected for the second place. That was the extent of his as- 
pirations while preparing for the Cooper Institute speech, al- 
though his friends in Illinois were vigorously conducting a 
campaign to place his name at the head of the ticket. In either 
event this engagement to speak in New York City was a golden 
opportunity if he could measure up to its requirements. So 
keen was his realization of all this that on Sunday afternoon 
he broke an engagement to dine at the home of Henry C. 
Bowen that his thoughts might not be diverted by social amen- 
ities from the address he had to deliver the next evening. He 
was oppressed by his realization of the requirements of the op- 
portunity to address such an audience, and that he might ap- 
pear to good advantage he was clad in an expensive new suit 
made expressly for that occasion. He was not without ex- 
perience, being just past fifty-one years of age and having been 
prominently before the public for many years. It is, there- 
fore, not in the least probable that there was any lack of come- 
liness in his attire apart from the unavoidable difficulty of 
fitting an outer garment to a form of such unusual measure- 
ments. That his garments did not fit as closely as did those 
upon the rotund figures of Bryant and Field is possible, but that 
they were less becoming than others is not probable. 

Fortunately, hoyvever, we are not left to probability re- 
specting his appearance upon that platform. During the after- 



56 LATEST LIGHT ON ABRAHAM LINCOLN 

noon of that 27th of February, i860, Mr. Lincoln, clad in the 
suit he wore while delivering the Cooper Institute address 
stood before the camera for a full length photograph by Brady. 
The attention of the reader is most earnestly invited to that 
picture with its dignified, impressive pose, compact, sinewy 
neck, gracefully curved collar and well-fitting, becoming coat 
and vest, silently protesting against all representations of Lin- 
coln's attire upon that occasion as lacking in any particular. 

This one picture of Lincoln as he appeared on the day of 
that address should be sufficient to silence, forever, all claims 
that he was careless in his attire. The picture being a photo- 
graph taken from life cannot be untruthful and bears witness 
to the scrupulous care with which Mr. Lincoln prepared for 
his appearance before the public. But it would perhaps be well 
for the reader to consult other Lincoln photographs and note 
the uniform fit of coat and vest to the neck and chest, and the 
graceful folds and lines of every garment worn. Each one will 
be found to confirm the statement of Dr. F. Fuller that "a 
peculiar air of neatness and refinement so difficult to describe, 
yet so attractive, always pervaded him."^" 

The following in the Nicolay Century Magazine article has 
peculiar weight in this connection: "There were many flippant 
and ill-natured remarks concerning Mr. Lincoln's dress, giving 
people the idea that he was either very rude by nature, or given 
to hopeless eccentricities. Nothing could be more untrue. He 
suffered no wise in comparison as to personal appearance with 
Douglas, the senator, or Bryant, the poet, or Edward Everett, 
the polished statesman, diplomat and orator. 

"In the fifteen hundred days during which he occupied the 
White House, receiving daily visits at almost all hours, often 
from seven in the morning to midnight, from all classes 
and conditions of American citizens, as well as from many 
distinguished foreigners, there was never any eccentric or 
habitual incongruity of his garb with his station. The world 
has yet to learn that General Scott, or Lord Lyons, or Bishop 

1- Lincoln Scrap-book, p. 3. 




LINCOLN AT COOPER INSTITUTE 

From a photograph by Brady, New York, February 29, i860, showing 
Lincoln's attire when he deHvered his Cooper Institute address. 
By courtesy of Mr. F. H. Meserve, New York City 

(See pa^e 34) 



LINCOLN'S PERSONAL APPEARANCE 57 

Simpson, or Prince Napoleon, or Archbishop Hughes, or the 
Comte de Paris, or Chief Justice Taney ever felt humiliated 
by the dress or want of dignity of President Lincoln in state 
ceremonial or private audience."" 

Mr. Lincoln M^as as refined and courteous in bearing as he 
was gentle and kind in disposition. His great wealth of af- 
fection and sympathy found constant expression in tones of 
tenderness and words well chosen and fitting. He was as re- 
fined as Chesterfield and as self -forgetful as Sir Philip Syd- 
ney. His manners were in keeping with his motives and he 
could not be rude or severe in word or act. In all of his strug- 
gles with Douglas he was the high-toned gentleman of whom 
the most cultivated were rightfully proud. However severe 
the provocations, and they were sometimes intolerable, he was 
not once exasperated so as to speak unadvisedly or act in an 
unbecoming manner. In his severe trials as President he al- 
ways manifested that considerate regard for others which 
was so becoming to the exalted station he occupied. His 
closest private secretary, who saw much more of him during 
that period than did any other person, states that "he always 
listened with patience even when the request of his petitioner 
might be frivolous or foolish. He gave others courtesy, kind- 
ness and consideration to the last degree." 

During all those trying years he never spoke a harsh or 
impatient word to any one of his secretaries or to others in 
their presence as they voluntarily testify. And of the many 
who were officially and otherwise associated with him no one 
has made record of a word or act of President Lincoln lack- 
ing in any of the qualities which should characterize the de- 
portment "of a natural gentleman," as Bartlett designates him. 

But on the other hand, as stated by the same writer, "He 
had perfect naturalness and native grace which never failed 
to shine through his words and acts. He always maintained a 
signal reserve without the least effort. He appeared and acted 
with an elegance that a king might envy and common men 
13 Vol. 20, pp. 934-937- 



58 LATEST LIGHT ON ABRAHAM LINCOLN 

despise. He moved with an ease that was in the highest de- 
gree impressive and with a grace of nature that would have 
become a woman. "^* 

When he first met Dr. Cuyler in Chicago, soon after his 
election as President, he promptly exclaimed, "I have kept up 
with you nearly every week in the New York Independent." 
This little sally of social suavity "touched the soft spot" in the 
heart of the veteran preacher and writer as Dr. Cuyler himself 
states. All statements and insinuations to the effect that Mr. 
Lincoln was lacking in the social amenities of life are fittingly 
rebuked by the following statement of Mr. Edward Everett: 
"I recognized in the President a full measure of the qualities 
which entitle him to the personal respect of the people. On the 
only social occasion on which I ever had the honor to be in his 
company, viz., the Commemoration at Gettysburg, he sat at the 
table of my friend David Wills, by the side of several distin- 
guished persons, foreigners and Americans; and in gentle- 
manly appearance, manners and conversation, he was the peer 
of any man at the table." 

There is a sharp conflict between literature and art touch- 
ing Mr. Lincoln's personal appearance. His features are the 
center of that contest. For many years literature was alone in 
activity in that field and was undivided in testimony until at 
length in 1891 Mr. Nicolay published in The Century Magazine 
an able, discriminating article showing that the representation 
of Mr. Lincoln as ungainly, awkward and homely was rad- 
ically erroneous. But writing disparagingly of Mr. Lincoln's 
looks had become so prevalent and was continued so persist- 
ently that even the strong and unequivocal testimony of the 
great President's private secretary attracted but little attention 
and was soon forgotten by the public. Mr. Nicolay in his 
article explained conditions by saying: "Partly as a blind in- 
ference from his humble origin, but more from the misrepre- 
sentations made, sometimes in jest, sometimes in malice, dur- 
ing political campaigns, there grew up in the minds of many 
1* Portraits of Lincoln, p. 16. 



LINCOLN'S PERSONAL APPEARANCE 59 

the strong impression that Mr. Lincoln was ugly, gawky and 
ill-mannered."^^ 

Borglum, in the same line, very pathetically says: "Lincoln, 
one of the greatest of observers, was himself the least truly 
observed. God had built him in the backyard of the nation. 
, . . He was heard, but seems rarely, if ever, to have been 
truly seen. . . . It is surprising that professional observers, 
artists and writers alike, have drawn and redrawn an untrue 
picture of this man. . . . The hundreds of copyrighted lives 
of him, in their personal description, are largely reiterated 
popular opinion and hearsay." 

Bartlett, with regret amounting almost to humiliation, says : 
"Biographers, statesmen, scholars, and writers have echoed 
ordinary observers with such persistence that it would seem 
they took delight in trying to heighten the incongruous con- 
trast between the outward and the inner man."^'' 

The manner in which this misrepresentation of Lincoln's 
physical construction and appearance was conducted is thus 
described by Bartlett: "The vocabulary employed to describe 
him includes about every word in common use in the English 
language, the meaning of which is opposed to anything admi- 
rable, elegant, beautiful or refined."^^ 

The effect upon the public mind of this persistent misrep- 
resentation is stated by Bartlett as follows: "It is the popular 
belief, the world over, that Abraham Lincoln was in face and 
figure, in action or repose, an ugly man. While the feeling of 
Lincoln's rare and superior worth as a man has steadily in- 
creased since his death, with startling strides and unexpected 
surprises, his personal appearance as it was first described has 
gone into unquestioned history. "^^ 

And even Lowell, so ardently devoted to the memory of 
Lincoln, in the great poem in which he designates him as "The 

15 Vol. 20, p. 932. 

1^ Portraits of Abraham Lincoln, p. ii. 

1^ Portraits of Lincoln, p. 7. 

IS Portraits of Abraham Lincoln, p. Ii. 



6o LATEST LIGHT ON ABRAHAM LINCOLN 

First American" tacitly admits Lincoln's lack of comeliness 
and apologetically says: 

"Outward grace is dust." 

During all the years since Lincoln's death art was in the 
field and was silently contradicting the claims of literature 
respecting Lincoln's physical construction and appearance. 
But not until recent years has public attention been effectively 
called to the conclusive proof of his peerless and symmetrical 
proportions and his rare beauty of form and features as 
shown by the artist's sensitized plate and the sculptor's mold. 
Few public men have been so plentifully and so variously rep- 
resented in art as has Abraham Lincoln. Because of his kind- 
ness to artists who asked for sittings we now have Daguerreo- 
types, ambrotypes, tintypes, photographs and masks taken from 
life during a period beginning in 1848, when he was thirty- 
nine years old, and continuing until only a few weeks before 
his death. These are unimpeachable witnesses whose testimony 
cannot be disproved, nor even questioned. Statements of 
literature are expressions of fallible human opinions. Photo- 
graphs are records of unquestionable facts. Literature at best 
is a statement of what the writer believes to be true. A good 
photograph is truth itself. Literature may be, and often is, 
false. A good photograph cannot be untrue. A first-class 
photograph and a well-made life-mask cannot tell "the whole 
truth" but they can and do tell "nothing but the truth." And 
all lovers of truth and all admirers of Lincoln may well re- 
joice at the entrance into this field of investigation of some 
of the ablest, most skillful and learned sculptors of the world 
who, with the Volk life-mask and the products of the camera, 
have given to the world its first truthful and accurate descrip- 
tion of the physical construction and appearance of Abraham 
Lincoln. It was at the prime of Mr. Lincoln's heroic manhood 
in 1858 that Leonard W. Volk met the future President at one 
of the great debates and secured from him a promise to sit for 
a life-mask when next in Chicago for several consecutive days. 




LEONARD W. VOLK AND HIS BUSTS OF LINCOLN AND DOUGLAS 

From an original photograph presented the author by Miss CaroHne 

Mcllvaine, Chicago. 



LINCOLN'S PERSONAL APPEARANCE 6i 

Mr. Volk was at that time engaged in making the heroic 
statue of Douglas which adorns one of the pubHc parks of 
Chicago, and therefore it was not until April, i860, that the 
opportunity came to make the famous Lincoln life-mask and 
bust. This was done soon after the Cooper Institute speech 
and a few weeks previous to the Chicago convention by which 
Mr. Lincoln was nominated as a candidate for President. 
Soon after that nomination Volk supplemented his work by 
making plaster casts of both of Lincoln's hands. 

Good fortune favored the sculptor's purposes in this matter 
and helpful influences inspired his genius and aided his efforts. 
Volk was an ardent admirer of Douglas who, at that time, was 
the leading democratic candidate for President. Having made 
a life-mask of Douglas of whose nomination he felt assured, 
he was ambitious also to do the same for the republican who 
would be nominated as a candidate for that office. But none of 
the leaders of the republican party whom Mr. Volk consulted 
would venture an opinion as to their probable nominee and not 
one of them suggested the possibility of Mr. Lincoln's nomina- 
tion. But seeing in the papers an announcement that Mr. Lin- 
coln was in Chicago on professional business and would remain 
for two weeki, Volk hastened to the courtroom and made 
arrangements with Lincoln for the sittings which had been 
promised him nearly two years before. Thus, unwittingly, the 
enterprising sculptor secured the coveted opportunity to make 
the life-mask of the republican candidate for President, and 
as we now know, the greatest and most beloved of all Ameri- 
cans. 

There seems to have been a special illumination of the 
sculptor's mind and soul while engaged on the Lincoln mask 
and bust, enabling him to make available the before-mentioned 
events and incidents in the production of one of the greatest 
and most nearly perfect works of sculptural art in human his- 
tory. That life-mask thus providentially produced has, for 
half a century and more, been subjected to the critical exami- 
nation of the most skillful, learned and widely experienced 



62 LATEST LIGHT ON ABRAHAM LINCOLN 

sculptors of the world, and as far as known, has never been 
spoken or written of otherwise than in terms of very strong 
commendation. Its praises have been and still are being 
sounded not only by the foremost of American artists and 
scholars but by the most eminent sculptors of France. 

That bust is such an exact reproduction in form and size 
of Lincoln's head, features, neck and shoulders when he was 
at his prime of strength, and comeliness, that in its presence 
one has a thrilling sense of being with Lincoln himself. To 
place the hand caressingly upon the forehead, or cheek of that 
bust, a5 for years I have done almost daily with the copy that 
stands on an oak pedestal in my library, where I am now writ- 
ing, is to have the whole being filled with mingled emotions of 
love and admiration for one so noble and majestic. 

The best photograph of Lincoln enables us to see him from 
only one viewpoint, but the bust permits us to look at him 
from every angle as we used to do when he was with us, and 
even to seem to touch him as if he were still personally present. 

The rare excellence of the mask is proved by the unequivo- 
cal and conclusive testimony of thoroughly competent judges. 
John Llay, in an unqualified commendation of the Volk life- 
mask says: 

"The face has a clean, firm outline; it is free from fat, 
but the muscles are hard and full ; the large mobile mouth is 
ready to speak, to shout, or laugh ; the bold, curved nose is 
broad and substantial, with spreading nostrils ; it is a face full 
of life, of energy, of vivid aspiration."^^ 

Bartlett says: "This life-mask is the first reliable contribu- 
tion to the material upon which a safe examination of the 
forms of his face can be made."'° 

The same author also states: "It is a perfect reproduction 
of Lincoln's face. Both mask and hands are distinguished for 
exactitude of form." And in his account of submitting the 
life-mask to the world's most eminent sculptors at Paris, Mr. 
Bartlett writes: "All of those distinguished sculptors examined 
18 The Century, November, 1890. 20 Portraits of Lincoln, p. 19. 




ABRAHAM LINCOLN 

Bust from the famous life-mask made in Chicago by Leonard W. Volk, in 
April, i860, a few days before Lincoln's nomination as a candidate for 
President. From a photograph of the bust which is in the author's col- 
lection. 



LINCOLN'S PERSONAL APPEARANCE 63 

and discussed the mask as an original and interesting piece of 
facial construction."^^ 

Bernard says: "His face, the temple of his manhood, we 
have with us in the life-mask." 

"It is infallible," was Borglum's characterization of the 
life-mask after devoting many months to the most diligent 
study of that great work of art, and after the careful perusal 
of all of Lincoln's speeches and writings together with the 
story of his life and the history of his efforts and achievements. 
Borglum here employs a term that can never be properly ap- 
plied to any product of human ingenuity and skill. Nothing 
that man has constructed is "infallible." But that bust was not 
constructed. It was not formed and fashioned by human 
hands. It was cast in a plaster mold, formed on Lincoln's 
face and removed when it was set, and therefore in its every 
detail it is "infallible," as Borglum says, and "a perfect re- 
production of Lincoln's face," as Bartlett says. So strong 
were the muscles and so firm the skin of Lincoln's face that 
even minor details like the pores in the skin made their impres- 
sion in the soft plaster mask and reappeared with marvelous 
distinctness in the bust that was cast in that mold. That 
"infallible" bust bears witness to Abraham Lincoln's rare 
comeliness and beauty. To look upon it is to know that in 
form and feature he was not less attractive and pleasing than 
in his inner nature which all the world admires. The first 
impression it produces is thrilling and close examination 
deepens the delight at first experienced. To an uncultured 
beholder it is impressive and charming, and to the learned and 
critical it is grand and beautiful. 

Mr. Bartlett says the mask shows "a knightly readiness, 
such as is seen in the photos taken immediately after his nom- 
ination, and greatly beautiful in its human style and gravity." 
"The upper, larger portion of Lincoln's profile projects more 
than is the case with most good faces, which was the dis- 
tinguishing feature of the best Greek faces over all others. "^^ 

21 Portraits of Lincoln, p. 25. 22 ibid., p. 27. 



64 LATEST LIGHT ON ABRAHAM LINCOLN 

Borglum says: "You will find written on his face literally 
all the complexity of his great nature." 

Bernard says: "Lincoln's life-mask is the i..^st wonderful 
face left to us, a face utterly opposed to those of the emperors 
of Rome or a Napoleon. They, with a record of a dominating 
will, self-assertive over others; Lincoln's commanding self 
for the sake of others, a spiritual will based on reason. His 
powerful chin is flanked on either side by powerful construc- 
tion reaching like steps of a pyramid from chin to ear, eye 
to brain, as if his forces took birth in thought w^ithin, con- 
ceived in architecture without, building to the furthermost 
limits of his face, to the fruits of toil in his wonderful hands. 

"One of Lincoln's features most expressive of his character 
are the ears. They are strangely beautiful for a man of his 
stature. There is no mark of fancy in them but that of fact ; 
nothing of the sensual in either the ears or the face. 

"Lincoln's face — what a countenance to study; what a 
horoscope of the man's noble character, determination and 
humility. Every line and curve has a meaning — some out- 
ward reflection of the being that lived within that body. 

"The eyebrows and forehead are also wondrous things. 
There are seven horizontal lines in the forehead and four 
perpendicular ones — a marvelous world of thought behind each 
delineation." 

These strong words from distinguished American sculp- 
tors are more than sustained by statements from even more 
distinguished artists in other lands. 

In 1877 Mr. Bartlett took a plaster copy of the Volk mask 
to Paris to get it cast in bronze. The instant he saw it the 
founder said, "What a beautiful face! Why, it's more beauti- 
ful and has more character than the Abbe's, and we think that 
is the handsomest one in France. What an extraordinary con- 
struction, and what fine forms it has." This he said without 
knowing whose mask it was.^^ 

A number of other sculptors confirmed his opinion and 

23 Portraits of Lincoln, p. 20. 




ABRAHAM LINCOLN LN LS4S 

From a photographic copy of the original Daguerreotype owned by Hon. 
Robert T. Lincoln and undoubtedly President Lincoln's first picture. 



LINCOLN'S PERSONAL APPEARANCE 65 

said: "It is unusual in general construction. It has a new and 
interesting character and its planes are remarkably beautiful 
and subtle. If it belongs to any type, it must be a wonderful 
specimen of that type."^* 

Fremiet, the great sculptor, said: "It seems impossible that 
a new country like yours should produce such a face. It is 
unique." This great and learned artist, without any previous 
knowledge of Lincoln's physical form and guided by the mask, 
described Lincoln's proportions and movements accurately, 
and said to Mr. Bartlett, "You have in hand a wonderfully 
interesting subject. I envy you.""^ 

All the French sculptors to whom Bartlett showed the life- 
mask "admired it for the harmony of the face with itself. 
Not one of them mentioned any ugliness, coarseness or flab- 
biness of form," 

The best French genre sculptor of modern times, after ex- 
perimenting with the mask for several months, returned it to 
Mr. Bartlett and said: "I can do nothing with that head, and 
I doubt if any one in these times can. The more I studied it 
the more difficulties I found. The subtle character of its forms 
is beyond belief. There is no face like it."^° 

Photography is quite as clear and unequivocal as is sculp- 
ture in declaring that Abraham Lincoln's features were beauti- 
ful and pleasing. His earliest picture is a Daguerreotype taken 
in 1848 when he was thirty-nine years old. When that picture 
was first published it produced a profound impression. In 
all our country and in Europe it was declared to be "the picture 
of a very handsome man." That judgment has never been re- 
versed nor modified. The picture has the Lincoln features 
without any of the marks of severe struggles which are seen in 
later pictures. The features are regular and harmonious and 
reveal great kindness of heart and strength of purpose. It 
holds the attention and leaves a vivid and deep impression. 
It continues to hold its place in public esteem and admiration. 

In 1856 Mr. Lincoln visited Princeton, Illinois, for the 

2* Portraits of Lincoln, p. 20. 25 ibid., p. 21. 



66 LATEST LIGHT ON ABRAHAM LINCOLN 

purpose of delivering a Fourth of July oration. He was, while 
in that city, the guest of Mr. John Howard Bryant, brother 
of William Cullen Bryant, the distinguished poet and journal- 
ist. During that visit at Princeton, Mr. Lincoln called at the 
McMasters Studio and sat for his picture, a copy of which was 
recently presented to me by Mrs. W. E. McVey of Los 
Angeles, California, a granddaughter of John Howard Bryant. 
This photograph was taken by the nephew of McMasters who 
on the Fourth of July, 1856, took the original picture from 
life. As far as known, this is the only picture we have of 
Lincoln taken during 1856. Mr. McMasters certifies to the 
genuineness of this picture and to the foregoing facts concern- 
ing its origin. He states that his uncle, who took the original 
picture, frequently exchanged negatives with Hesler of 
Chicago which he believes accounts for the resemblance of 
this picture to one understood to have been taken by the 
Chicago photographer in 1857. The Hesler picture may have 
been copied from the one taken by McMasters the year before. 

It would be difficult to find a more inspiringly handsome 
picture than this McMasters photograph. It is a face of fault- 
less structure with animation and high purpose radiating from 
every feature. It has all the beauty of the earlier picture with 
far more of character and confidence. Its lines are not deep 
as in his pictures taken during his Presidency but they form 
a combination of irresistible charm. It is scarcely less than a 
cruel travesty to speak or think of such a man as ungainly and 
awkward. 

The alertness shown in this picture is also seen in the 
photograph taken by Hesler in i860 soon after Lincoln's 
nomination as a candidate for President. The great debates 
with Douglas in 1858, the Ohio speeches, the Cooper Institute 
address and the tour through New England all occurred be- 
tween the periods when these two pictures were taken and are 
all written in his features in this Hesler photograph. These 
three pictures should be grouped with the Volk bust as they 
all represent Mr. Lincoln as he appeared when smooth shaven. 




fe U-, 



LINCOLN'S PERSONAL APPEARANCE 67 

There is a striking resemblance between them, their most dis- 
tinctive agreement being in the impressive and harmonious 
beauty of each one. 

On the 19th of May, i860, the day succeeding the one on 
which Mr. Lincoln was nominated as a candidate for Presi- 
dent, Marcus L. Ward, afterward Governor of New Jersey, 
visited Springfield for the purpose of forming the acquaintance 
of the nominee, and while there secured an ambrotype of Mr. 
Lincoln taken at Mr. Ward's request. On the 19th of Decem- 
ber, 1 88 1, Governor Ward sent that picture to The Century 
Company for publication in their magazine. In the letter 
which accompanied the picture, Governor Ward said: "No 
one, I imagine, will fail to recognize in the expression of the 
face those noble qualities of the man — honesty, gentleness and 
kind-heartedness — which so endeared him to all who knew 
him."^« 

In this picture Is one of the best representations we have 
of Lincoln's hand. The tapering fingers of the hand that rests 
upon the arm of the chair fully justifies Mr. Bartlett's claim 
that Lincoln's studies and his production of choice literature 
had caused the muscular thumb and fingers of the rail-splitter 
to be transformed into those of a man engaged in literary 
pursuits. Remembering that this picture was taken before his 
first election as President one can imagine the further trans- 
formation of his hands which was wrought by the production 
of high-class epistolary and official literature which came from 
his pen during his Presidency. The hand represented in this 
picture appears fit and worthy to write the Bixby letter, the 
Emancipation Proclamation, the Gettysburg Speech, and the 
Second Inaugural address. It is almost startling to look at 
that pendant hand with its easy and graceful action. 

Having considered the statements of distinguished sculp- 
tors concerning Mr, Lincoln's personal appearance, as shown 
by the life-mask and bust, we will find it highly interesting and 
instructive to give attention to the opinions of some writers 

2^ Century Magazine, Vol. 2, p. 852. 



68 LATEST LIGHT ON ABRAHAM LINCOLN 

and others respecting his personal appearance as shown by 
some photographs taken after he began to grow a beard. 
Borglum in telling of his purpose and efforts to get into the 
Lincoln spirit before attempting to represent him in marble, 
very frankly says: "I felt that the accepted portraits of him 
did not justify his record. His life, his labors, his writings 
made me feel some gross injustice had been done him in the 
blind, careless use of such phrases as ungainly, uncouth, vul- 
gar, rude, which were commonly applied to him by his con- 
temporaries. These popular descriptions did not fit the master 
of polished Douglas, nor the man whose 'intellectual arro- 
gance' academic Sumner resented. I did not believe there ever 
was a grotesque Lincoln. I did not believe the man who 
could whip his way to the head of a band of ruffians, reason 
his way to the head of a town meeting, inspire and fire a 
nation, w^n and hold the hearts of millions, was gawky or 
even awkward. No, Lincoln was not an awkward man. I 
believed he had been falsely drawn. I believed if properly 
seen and truly read the compelling and enduring greatness of 
the man would be found written in his own actions, in his 
figure, in his deportment, in his face, and that some of his 
compelling greatness might be put into marble."^^ 

Referring to the pictures we have of Lincoln, Borglum 
says: "Through these Lincoln lives, lives as a comfort and 
reality and an example and living inspiration to every mother 
and every son in America." 

Bartlett says: "To justly understand and appreciate the 
pictures of Lincoln we shall be obliged to put aside our habit- 
ual standard of judgment and pay tribute to the inherent 
authority of their own physical and mental construction." 

The following statement by Noah Brooks of Lincoln's 
appearance in 1856 should be considered in connection with 
the McMasters picture taken on the Fourth of July of that 
year. Mr. Brooks could not have wished for a better illus- 
tration of his description of Lincoln's appearance than is this 

"Everybody's Magazine, Feb., 1910, p. 218. 




ABRAHAM LINCOLN IN 1860 

From an original photograph by Hessler, in Chicago, soon after his nomination, 
and now in the author's coUection. 

{See page 66) 



LINCOLN'S PERSONAL APPEARANCE 69 

fine picture. And the artist who took the picture could not 
have wished for a more vivid description of his work than is 
this statement by Mr. Brooks concerning Mr. Lincoln's ap- 
pearance. Mr. Brooks states: "When Lincoln was on the 
stump in '56 his face, though naturally sallow, had a rosy 
flush. His eyes were full and bright and he was in the full- 
ness of health and vigor."^* 

In connection with the foregoing description of Mr. Lin- 
coln in 1856 Mr. Brooks tells of his appearance in 1862, six 
years later, as follows: "I shall never forget the shock which 
my first sight of him gave me in 1862. . . . The light 
seemed to have gone out of his eyes, which were sunken far 
under his enormous brows. But there was over his whole face 
an expression of sadness and a far-away look in the eyes, 
which were utterly unlike the Lincoln of other days. . . . 
I was so pained that I could almost have shed tears." 

Yet during those six years in spite of the cares and sor- 
rows that so marred his visage by chiselling great lines on all 
his features and veiling his eyes in a mist of deep melancholy, 
Mr. Lincoln grew into greater strength and comeliness as Mr. 
Brooks in the same article says: "I am bound to say that the 
Lincoln of 1862 did in appearance better become the Presi- 
dential office than the Lincoln of 1856 could have done. His 
form, always angular, was fuller and more dignified ; and that 
noble head, which is to this day the despair of painters and 
sculptors, appeared far nobler than when I first saw him in 
Illinois."^' 

Of the picture of Lincoln in McClellan's tent at Antietam 
Bartlett says: "It is the most unusual and strangely interesting 
of all the pictures ever taken of him in a sitting position. It 
is an extreme illustration of good physical centralization. It 
is sculpturesque in its perfectness as a bas-relief. Yet how 
humanly expressive in simplicity and directness of the atten- 
tion which the President is bestowing upon his companion. 
An essay could be written about it. It is vitally related to 
28 Scribner's Magazine, Vol. 15, p. 562. 29 Ibid,, 562. 



70 LATEST LIGHT ON ABRAHAM LINCOLN 

the intellectual and human frame of one of the most wonder- 
ful beings that has appeared upon the earth. "^° 

In his comments on several of Lincoln's pictures taken 
at McClellan's headquarters before Antietam, Bartlett says: 
"These figures are the most interesting ones I have ever seen 
of a man standing." 

On the 15th of November, 1863, four days before the 
Gettysburg address, President Lincoln, accompanied by Noah 
Brooks, visited Gardner's gallery in Washington and sat for 
a photograph, the negative of which was soon after destroyed. 
The visit was made upon the photographer's request and Mr. 
Brooks was present upon the invitation of the President. The 
picture has proved to be the most remarkable of any full length 
representation of Lincoln in a sitting position. It it unsur- 
passed in its presentation of a man of faultless construction 
and great beauty. This strong statement is justified by the 
picture itself, as all will agree who give it a careful examina- 
tion. Mr. Bartlett says of it: 

"Until I saw this photograph in Washington, in December, 
1874, I supposed that Lincoln was as popularl]; described. 
When I first saw it I was amazed at the difference between it 
and current tradition. It struck me as the most original, easy, 
dignified, and impressive representation of a man in a sitting 
position I had ever seen. Years of looking at it and studying 
it in comparison with many others of the eminent men of 
modern times have confirmed that impression. 

"Still greater confirmation I found in the opinions of three 
of the greatest sculptors of modern times, Fremiet, Rodin and 
Aube; they were astonished at its original and imposing 
presence. 'It is a new man; he has tremendous character,' 
they said. Everything about this picture is surprisingly sug- 
gestive and admirable. The head in its massiveness, the way it 
is poised on the shoulders, the lines of the legs and arms, and 
especially the bend of the body, in spite of the coverings are 
firm, fine, and easy. The kneepans are not over large or 

30 Portraits of Lincoln, pp. 33, 34, 35. 





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y'lJli 







LINCOLN IN 1863 

From a photograph taken in Washington on November 15, 1863, a few days 
before he delivered the Gettysburg address. 



LINCOLN'S PERSONAL APPEARANCE 71 

shapeless, nor do the hands show any incongruity in mass, 
Hne, or movement. There is nothing in the hang of the clothes 
or their lines and folds that indicates anything but a well- 
shaped form beneath. No monarch ever sat with more natural 
grace and dignity. 

"The simple, easy line of the hand on the table, and that 
made by the foot and leg and the bend of the knee, suggest 
quite the opposite of clumsy and awkwardly constructed or 
moving articulations. It is a great portrait, — a great ready- 
made statue or picture. As such it ranks with the best por- 
traits in any art, and as far as I know it is absolutely unique ; 
again, as such, it means that Lincoln's mind and body not only 
worked together in perfect physical harmony, but exemplified 
a dignified and gracious ease. He made his own statue. It 
is his actual presence, the very life of the man. 

"There are many other significant details in this sitting 
portrait, of which a few may be mentioned. The legs are 
kept well together. Every action of legs, arms, hands 
and feet is decisive, completing its intention, and all in 
natural harmony. This is a very important and significant 
fact, so much so that it may be taken as an ample starting 
point for a full consideration of Lincoln's intellectual construc- 
tion. So definite is the completion of intention that the right 
foot is placed fully upon the floor, and the full length of the 
other foot is also prone upon the floor. The position of these 
feet shows not only a flexible but a well-formed articulation. 
This flexibility of ankle joints permits the left foot to fall 
down, and thus not only saves it from being awkward by point- 
ing up into the air, as nine hundred and ninety-nine feet in a 
thousand would do, but makes a fine line in connection with 
the leg. The size and character of Lincoln's feet, as shown 
through his boots, are in admirable accord with his body. 
They are well and forcibly formed, and of noticeable im- 
portance as a constructive fact. 

"In none of the sitting views is there any sign of a dis- 
position to sprawl or spread around, as the majority of men 



^2 LATEST LIGHT ON ABRAHAM LINCOLN 

do when sitting. No member, like the hands, for instance, is 
obtrusive. These facts indicate natural elegance, high style 
in bodily action, and a concentrative physical economy in ac- 
cordance with the beauty and character of Lincoln's mind."^^ 

The best front view of Lincoln is supposed to have been 
taken on the 9th of March, 1864, the day General Grant re- 
ceived from him a commission as Lieutenant-General. Dur- 
ing the afternoon of the day on which that important event 
occurred it is claimed the President accompanied General 
Grant to a gallery where each sat for his photograph. The 
front view picture of Lincoln then taken was not given to the 
public for many years after his death when the untouched 
negative w^as accidentally discovered and, as Colonel A. K. 
McClure states, "copies were printed from it without a single 
change in the lines or features of Lincoln's face. It therefore 
presents Lincoln true to life." From the time of its appear- 
ance it has taken first place among the pictures of Lincoln, 
receiving the highest praise from most competent judges and 
being by artists made the basis for engravings and other rep- 
resentations of the President. Colonel McClure says: "This 
is the only perfect copy of his face I have ever seen in any 
picture." 

Bartlett declares this to be "the best front view of Lin- 
coln," and "as a whole it is probably the most impressively 
proportioned picture ever taken of Lincoln. It is all strange. 
In no respect like any other head. It is a large one, not in 
inches, but in construction, — a head that will hold its own in 
space, in the open air. In this rare respect it belongs to the 
few faces that are inherently decorative. It must be estimated 
by a standard authorized by itself. No such eyes were ever 
seen in mortal head, and no such setting was ever given to 
any other eyes." Portraits of Lincoln, p. 29. 

All of the great French sculptors whom Mr. Bartlett con- 
sulted extolled Lincoln's face and features as shown in this 
picture quite as strongly as they did those which are seen in 

31 Portraits of Lincoln, pp. 32, 33. 



LINCOLN'S PERSONAL APPEARANCE 73 

the life-mask. The spell of Lincoln's picture upon great 
minds is shown in a statement made by George William Cur- 
tis to Dr. Andrew D. White, during the republican national 
convention of 1884. Dr. White tells of the incident as fol- 
lows : "As we came into the convention on the morning of the 
day fixed for making the nominations, I noticed that the 
painted portraits of Washington and Lincoln, previously on 
either side of the president's chair, had been removed. Owing 
to the tumultuous conduct of the crowd in the galleries, it had 
been found best to remove things of an ornamental nature 
from the walls, for some of these ornaments had been thrown 
down, to the injury of those sitting below. 

"On my calling Curtis's attention to the removal of the 
two portraits, he said: 'Yes, I noticed it, and I am glad of it. 
Those weary eyes of Lincoln have been upon us here during 
our whole stay, and I am glad that they are not to see the work 
that is to be done here to-day.' It was a curious exhibition of 
sentiment, a revelation of the deep poetic feeling which was 
so essential an element in Curtis's noble character."^^ 

Other statements relative to Lincoln's harmonious, impres- 
sive and pleasing physical construction as shown by art from 
the authors herein quoted, and from other competent judges, 
could be given indefinitely, but the foregoing are deemed suffi- 
cient, if duly considered, to accomplish the end sought, and 
are fittingly followed by the following forcible declaration 
by Borglum: "Lincoln's face is infinitely nearer an expression 
of our Christ character than all the conventional pictures of 
the 'Son of God.' That symbolic head, with its long hair 
parted in the middle and features that never lived, is the crea- 
tion of artists, Lincoln's face the triumph of God through man 
and of men through God. One fancy ; the other, truth at labor, 
Lincoln, the song of democracy written by God." 

The foregoing statements relative to Lincoln's appearance 
as shown by the Hfe-mask, bust and pictures, are fully con- 
firmed by equally strong declarations of persons who were 

32 Autobiography, Vol. I, pp. 203, 204. 



74 LATEST LIGHT ON ABRAHAM LINCOLN 

closely associated with him or had occasionally met him. 
Nicolay says: "Seated and viewed from the chest up, he is 
fine looking. His forehead is high and full, and swells out 
grandly. His face even in repose was not unattractive, and 
when lit up by his open, genial smile, or illuminated in the 
utterance of a strong or stirring thought, his countenance was 
positively handsome. 

"The question of looks depended in Lincoln's case very 
much upon his moods. The large framework of his features 
was greatly modified by the emotions which controlled them. 
In a countenance of strong lines and rugged masses like 
Lincoln's, the lift of an eyebrow, the curve of a lip, the flash 
of an eye, the movements of prominent muscles created a much 
wider facial play than in rounded immobile countenances. 
Lincoln's features were the despair of every artist who under- 
took his portrait."^' 

In speaking of the impression made by Lincoln upon the 
distinguished men who met him, Nicolay wrote: "The eyes 
of these men were not upon the tailor's suit of broadcloth, 
but upon the President and the man, and in such a scrutiny 
Lincoln outranked any mortal whoever questioned him eye to 
eye in his long and strange career from New Salem to the 
Blue Room of the White House."'* 

F. B. Carpenter, the artist, who spent six months in the 
White House, while painting the famous picture of Lincoln 
and his Cabinet, and made a careful and scientific study of the 
President's features, says: "His eyes were bluish gray in color, 
— always in deep shadow, however, from the upper lids, which 
were unusually heavy, and the expression was remarkably 
pensive and tender, often inexpressibly sad, as if the reservoir 
of tears lay very near the surface."'^ 

H. C. Deming states that "Lincoln's eyes were bright, 
soft, and beautiful," and that his smile was "radiant, capti- 
vating and winning as was ever given to mortal." 

33 Century Magazine, Vol. 20, p. 933. 

3* Ibid., p. 937. 8^ Six Months in the White House. 



LINCOLN'S PERSONAL APPEARANCE 75 

James R. Gilmore says: "His was the deepest, saddest, 
kindliest eye I have ever seen in a human being. I never 
knew a smile so positively captivating. It transfigured his 
whole face, making his plain features actually good looking, 
so that I could agree with Caroline M. Kirkland, who not long 
before had told me that he was the handsomest man she had 
ever seen."^^ 

Andrew D, White, in describing his first meeting with 
President Lincoln, says: "As he came toward us in a sort of 
awkward, perfunctory manner his face seemed to me one of 
the saddest I had ever seen and when he reached us he held 
out his hand to the first stranger, then to the second, and so 
on, all with the air of a melancholy automaton. But suddenly, 
some one in the company said something which amused him, 
and instantly there came in his face a most marvelous trans- 
formation. I have never seen anything like it in any other 
human being. His features were lighted, his eyes radiant."" 

In connection with the foregoing account of the trans- 
formation of President Lincoln's countenance. Dr. White 
continues: "Years afterward, noticing in the rooms of his son, 
Mr. Robert T, Lincoln, our minister at London, a portrait of 
his father, and seeing that it had the same melancholy look 
noticeable in all President Lincoln's portraits, I alluded to this 
change in his father's features, and asked if any artist had ever 
caught the happier expression. Mr. Robert Lincoln answered 
that, so far as he knew, no portrait of his father in this better 
mood had ever been taken ; that when any attempt was made 
to photograph him or paint his portrait, he relapsed into his 
melancholy mood, and that this is what has been transmitted 
to us by all who have ever attempted to give us his likeness."^® 

This explains in part one of the reasons for the general 
impression that Mr. Lincoln's features were exceedingly plain. 
He was from early life of a deeply melancholy nature and his 

S8 Personal Recollections, p. "JT. 
^"^ Autobiography, Vol. I, p. I2I. 
38 Autobiography of Andrew D. White, Vol. i, pp. 121, 122. 



76 LATEST LIGHT ON ABRAHAM LINCOLN 

depressing meditations caused his comely features to be some- 
times shrouded in gloom. Hon. George D. Boutwell says: 
"There was at all times when he was not engaged in conversa- 
tion, a sadness of expression in Mr. Lincoln's countenance 
which was very pathetic."^® 

Judge Henry C. Whitney says: "The child (Lincoln) was 
often sad and serious. With the earhest dawn of reason, he 
began to suffer and endure."*" 

"No element of Lincoln's character was so marked, obvious 
and ingrained as his mysterious and profound melancholy. 
My attention was first drawn to this sad characteristic, which 
surprised me greatly at the time, in the spring of 1855, at the 
Bloomington Circuit court. I was sitting with John T. Stuart, 
while a case was being tried, and our conversation was, at the 
moment, about Lincoln, when Stuart remarked that he was a 
hopeless victim of melancholy. I expressed surprise, to which 
Stuart replied: 'Look at him, now.' I turned a little and there 
beheld Lincoln sitting alone in the corner of the bar, most 
remote from any one, wrapped in abstraction and gloom. It 
was a sad but interesting study for me, and I watched him for 
some time. It appeared as if he was pursuing in his mind some 
specific, sad subject, regularly and systematically, through 
various sinuosities, and his sad face would assume, at times, 
deeper phases of grief; but no relief came from dark and 
despairing melancholy till he was roused by the breaking up 
of court, when he emerged from his cave of gloom and came 
back, like one awakened from sleep, to the world in which he 
lived, again."" 

This natural tendency to sorrowful meditations was 
strengthened by being indulged as it was by Mr. Lincoln. 
His efforts for temperance reform so enlisted his sympathies 
for the drunkard and for those dependent upon him, and so 
filled him with despair as he contemplated the character and 

39 Tributes, p. 68. 

40 Life on the Circuit with Lincoln, p. 140. 
" Ibid., p. 139. 



LINCOLN'S PERSONAL APPEARANCE ^^ 

strength of the Hquor traffic that his tendencies to melan- 
choly became more active and potential in his nature and life. 
Then came the struggle with Douglas which brought him face 
to face with the evils of slavery and the governmental and 
religious aspects of that institution tended greatly to increase 
his disquietude of heart and mind. To all this was added his 
all-dominating sense of responsibility when he was called to 
the Presidency and his unspeakable anguish of soul during the 
rebellion that followed. Referring to this Mr. Nicolay says: 
"About two weeks before Mr. Lincoln left Springfield for 
Washington, a deep-seated melancholy seemed to take pos- 
session of his soul. . . . The former Mr. Lincoln was no 
longer visible to me. His face was transformed from mobility 
into an iron mask."" 

Carpenter tells of his observations while painting the 
famous Emancipation picture as follows: "Lines of care 
plowed his face, the hollows in his cheeks and under his eyes 
being very marked. Absorbed in his papers, he would be- 
come unconscious of my presence, while I intently studied 
every line and shade of expression in that furrowed face. 
In repose, it was the saddest face I ever knew. There were 
days when I could scarcely look into it without crying. Dur- 
ing the first week of the battles of the Wilderness he scarcely 
slept at all. Passing through the main hall of the domestic 
apartment on one of these days, I met him, clad in a long 
morning wrapper, pacing back and forth a narrow passage 
leading to one of the windows, his hands behind him, great 
black rings under his eyes, his head bent forward upon his 
breast, — altogether such a picture of the effects of sorrow, 
care and anxiety as would have melted the hearts of the worst 
of his adversaries, who so mistakenly applied to him the 
epithets of tyrant and usurper. With a sorrow almost divine, 
he, too, could have said of the rebellious states, 'How often 
would I have gathered you together, even as a hen gathered her 
chickens under her wings, and ye would not!' Like another 
« The Century, Vol. 20, p. 933- 



78 LATEST LIGHT ON ABRAHAM LINCOLN 

Jeremiah, he wept over the desolation of the nation; he 
mourned the slain of the daughters of his people."^^ 

Carpenter further says: ''All familiar with him will re- 
member the weary air which became habitual during his last 
years. This was more of the mind than the body, and no rest 
and recreation which he allowed himself could relieve it. As 
he sometimes expressed it, the remedy 'seemed never to reach 
the tired spot' "^'^ 

Noah Brooks writes as follows of Lincoln's looks when 
he received information of the Chancellorsville disaster: "I 
shall never forget that picture of despair. He held a tele- 
gram in his hand, and as he closed the door and came forward 
toward us, I mechanically noticed that his face, usually sallow, 
was ashen in hue."*' 

John Hay says of Lincoln's labors and sufferings: "Under 
this frightful ordeal his demeanor and disposition changed — 
so gradually that it would be impossible to say when the 
change began; but he was in mind, body and nerves a very 
different man at the second inauguration from the one who 
had taken the oath in 1861. He continued always the same 
kindly, genial and cordial spirit he had been at first; but the 
boisterous laughter became less frequent year by year; the 
eye grew veiled by constant meditation on momentous sub- 
jects; the air of reserve and detachment from his surround- 
ings increased. He aged with great rapidity. 

"The change is shown with startling distinctness by two 

life-masks — the one made by Leonard W. Volk in Chicago, 

in April, i860, the other by Clark Mills in Washington, in the 

spring of 1865. The first is a man of fifty-one, and young 

for his years. The other is so sad and peaceful in its infinite 

repose that the famous sculptor, Augustus Saint-Gaudens, 

insisted, when he first saw it, that it was a death mask. The 

lines are set, as if the living face, like the copy, had been in 

bronze; the nose is thin and lengthened by the emaciation of 

« Six Months in the White House, pp. 30, 31. 

**Ibid., p. 217. 

40 Washington in Lincoln's Day, p. 57. 



LINCOLN'S PERSONAL APPEARANCE 79 

the cheeks; the mouth is fixed like that of an archaic statue; 
a look as of one on whom sorrow and care had done their 
worst without victory is on all the features; the whole ex- 
pression is of unspeakable sadness and all-sufficing strength. 
Yet the peace is not the dreadful peace of death; it is the 
peace that passeth understanding."*^ 

Lincoln's native tendency to melancholy and his terrible 
experiences of anxiety and sorrow wrote their records very 
legibly upon his strong, handsome features. They were nearly 
all surface records which vanished as by magic at the entrance 
of animation or pleasure, but they remained as characteristic 
of Lincoln's features in the recollection of persons who saw 
him and never had the good fortune to see him smile. Many 
such saw the expression in his face of his heart's unutterable 
anxiety and anguish and did not discover the beauty of the 
face itself. The unfortunate impressions this produced have 
been written into history and have gone into popular belief 
through the malice of some and the inexcusable carelessness 
of others. As an illustration of the seeming indifference to 
truth of some writers I will state that there now lies before 
me a copy of a widely circulated magazine in which appears 
a picture of the Volk life-mask, beneath which is printed the 
following: "Life-mask of Abraham Lincoln, made by 
Douglas Volk at the White House, in 1863." In that brief 
sentence there are four distinct and definite statements only 
one of which is true, and three of which are inexcusably false. 
The picture is that of the life-mask of Lincoln, but it was 
not made by Douglas Volk, but by his father Leonard W. 
Volk. It was not made in the White House but in Chicago, 
and it was not made in 1863 but in i860. Those errors, while 
not seriously harmful to the memory of Lincoln, are mislead- 
ing because they are not true to the facts they assume to 
state and they are representative of the many slovenly state- 
ments by which the public has been led to believe that Abraham 
Lincoln was gawky, homely and awkward. 

** Century Magazine, Vol. 19, p. 37. 



8o LATEST LIGHT ON ABRAHAM LINCOLN 

The statements already set forth relative to Lincoln's attire 
when he delivered the Cooper Institute speech, and similar 
statements which have appeared in books, pamphlets, maga- 
zines and newspapers are illustrative of the unfortunate habit 
of some writers to reproduce in their publications, without 
verification, disparaging statements which others have made 
concerning him. 

We have covered a wide range, and have shown how in- 
excusable are all disparaging statements relative to Lincoln's 
personal appearance when reproduced by present-day writers. 
There was a time when written descriptions were our only 
source of information as to Lincoln's looks. There was then 
some excuse for the belief and statement that he was homely, 
but that excuse no longer exists since the "infallible" testimony 
of art in sculpture and photography have settled the question 
of his personal appearance beyond the possibility of error or 
uncertainty. 

In the past, many statements by people who had met Lin- 
coln were published and were unfortunately misleading in 
their influence upon the thought of the later generations. But 
now, whoever wishes to know whether Lincoln was fine look- 
ing or homely has but to consult his life-mask bust or one of 
his first-class photographs. And the world is now doing that 
with most satisfactory results. Replicas of that bust are being 
multiplied and are going into schools, offices and homes, w^hile 
Lincoln's photographs are becoming plentiful in all the nation 
and throughout the world. 

Thus the unfortunate errors of the past are being cor- 
rected and Lincoln is coming into his own. Persons who knew 
him well understand why when he was living, he was so gen- 
erally regarded as homely. He had just one unattractive fea- 
ture — his lower lip was too thick to be in perfect harmony 
with his other features. With most people that lip was the 
first feature seen upon coming into his presence and it usually 
produced the impression that he was of uncomely visage. 
My own impressions when I first met him in all prob- 



LINCOLN'S PERSONAL APPEARANCE 8i 

ability were similar to those experienced by others when first 
seeing him at close range. It was at a large gathering and 
he was receiving the greetings of many admiring friends. As 
I approached the company there was an opening in the group 
directly before me and I saw him at full length. Because 
of the distance between us I could not distinguish his 
features but his great height and symmetrical proportions 
together with his massive head, thickly covered with bushy 
black hair, gave him an imposing and admirable personal 
appearance. He stood squarely and firmly on both feet which 
were near together. He was erect and his bearing and move- 
ments were impressively dignified and graceful. His presence 
seemed august but very attractive, and I yearned to feel the 
grasp of his hand and to hear his voice uttering words of 
greeting. But as I approached him and looked into his face 
that lower lip attracted and held my attention and instantly 
produced the unwelcome and depressing impression that he 
was very homely. At that first view I saw his entire face 
as he appears in the front view photograph before mentioned, 
and that one slightly uncomely feature caused all his face to 
seem to be unattractive and even homely. Had I seen him 
but that once I would surely have carried away the false 
impression then produced. But when a few moments later 
I looked a second time and from a different viewpoint, his 
lower lip was concealed from view by the heads of people 
standing near him, and I could see only those features above 
his mouth as they are seen in the partly covered copy of the 
famous front view photograph and he appeared most thrill- 
ingly comely and attractive. 

After that first meeting with Mr. Lincoln I saw him many 
times but I never again noticed that lower lip. My view of 
his face with that feature concealed, as before stated, so 
transfixed my whole being that from that time whenever I 
looked upon his face I saw only the comely features. I made 
no effort, for it required no effort, to have it so. I simply did 
not see the uncomely feature. I could not see it so entranced 



82 LATEST LIGHT ON ABRAHAM LINCOLN 

was I by the vision of the strength and beauty of his face which 
at first I did not recognize. 

Upon other occasions I studied his face with the care and 
dihgence of an enthusiastic young learner, but that hp did 
not again come under my observation or my thought during 
the period of my association with him. But the recollection 
of my impressions when I first met him assure me that his 
heavy lower lip was responsible for the belief that he was 
extremely homely. 

But, as Bartlett says, "It is to be remembered that the 
right kind of a thick lower lip is a physiognomical mark of sen- 
sitiveness and tenderness of nature."^^ 

This statement of the distinguished sculptor is peculiarly 
applicable to Abraham Lincoln. His habits of profound and 
prolonged meditation usually resulted in painful melancholy 
which never failed to be revealed in the expressions of his 
countenance. And the lower lip was the one feature that 
most fully and faithfully disclosed the anguish of his soul 
and it therefore grew into an expressive symbol of the great 
tenderness of his nature and his deep sympathy with human 
suffering and sorrow. 

Had Lincoln's melancholy been accompanied by a spirit of 
resentment or of self-assertion and defense that lip would have 
been held firm in its place and kept thin as were the lips of 
Jackson, who also knew anxiety and sorrow but was never de- 
spondent nor tenderly sympathetic. Lincoln's depression arose 
from the kindness of his heart and his deep and tender 
sympathy and hence "his plainest feature," as Carpenter 
designates his mouth, was "expressive of much firmness and 
gentleness." 

4^ Portraits of Lincoln, p. 25. 




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Ill 

THE JAQUESS-GILMORE MISSION * 

TO the re-election of Abraham Lincoln as President, 
and the final overthrow of the Rebellion, the Jaquess- 
Gilmore Embassy of 1863-64 contributed more largely 
than did any other single effort of individuals, or any one 
achievement or act of the Government during that period. 

Having been an active participant in the struggles of that 
Presidential campaign and having given the history of that 
mission careful consideration for more than half a century, 
I have no hesitation in saying that the disclosures secured by 
that embassy and widely published at the crisis hour of that 
contest, turned the tide of battle and saved the nation from the 
ruinous defeat of President Lincoln and the dissolution of the 
Union. 

The story of that unique mission and of its decisive influ- 
ence in the Presidential campaign is here told with painstak- 
ing fidelity and, to be rightfully appreciated, it should be read 
in its entirety. The hero of that embassy, 

Colonel James F. Jaquess, 

of the 73rd Illinois Volunteers, was a rare man. He lived 
with his head above the clouds while his feet were on solid 
ground; he lived in the eternal while he wrought with tre- 
mendous force in the activities of earth. He was a prominent 
minister of the Methodist Episcopal Church, and a distin- 
guished college president before the Rebellion, and in the 
pulpit he was a Boanerges, a "Son of Thunder," and his 

*AI1 the quotations in this Chapter which are not otherwise desig- 
nated, are from "Personal Recollections of Abraham Lincoln and the 
Civil War," by Mr. James R. Gilmore, and appear in this volume by 
permission of his publishers, L. C. Page & Company, of Boston, Mass. 

83 



84 LATEST LIGHT ON ABRAHAM LINCOLN 

gospel messages were like oral proclamations by Jehovah. He 
seemed to live in constant fellowship with the Most High, 
and to be an utter stranger to worldly considerations and 
motives while obeying the commands of God. He was as 
loving and gentle as a devoted mother in dealing with the 
weak and erring, but he would dash with fearless fury into 
battle as if hurled by an invisible catapult against the forces 
of unrighteousness. To him the entreaties of the gospel, 
the denunciations of the law, and the violence of war, were 
alike the agencies of God in the furtherance of His cause. 

President Lincoln had for more than twenty-five years 
known Colonel Jaquess as a very successful minister of the 
gospel, and when in May, 1863, he first learned of the pro- 
posed Embassy of Peace, he said: "I know Jaquess well. He is 
remarkably level-headed. I never knew a man more so." He 
"is cool, deliberate. God-fearing, of exceptional sagacity and 
worldly wisdom." 

General W. S. Rosecrans, who at the time was in com- 
mand of the Army of the Cumberland, with headquarters at 
Murfreesboro, Tenn., in conversation with Mr. James R. Gil- 
more, spoke of Colonel Jaquess as "one of my best and bravest 
officers." "As to his life, he takes the right view about it. 
He considers it already given to the country. If you had 
seen him at Stone River you would think so." "He is a hero, 
John Brown and Chevalier Bayard rolled into one, and polished 
up with common sense and a knowledge of Greek, Latin and 
the mathematics."^ 

Colonel Jaquess as he appeared at the time of making his 
proposition is described as "a little above the medium height, 
with gray hair and beard, and high, open forehead, and a thin 
marked face expressing great earnestness, strength and be- 
nignity of character." 

General James A. Garfield, afterwards President, said of 
Colonel Jaquess: "He is most solemnly in earnest and has 
great confidence in the result of his mission." 
1 James R. Gilraore, "Down in Tennessee," p. 240. 




COLONEL JAMES F. JAQUESS 
The hero of the Jaquess-Gilmore Mission. 
Courtesy L. C. Page & Company, Boston. 



THE JAQUESS-GILMORE MISSION 85 

Colonel Jaquess' Proposition 

On May 19th, 1863, Colonel Jaquess at Murfreesboro, 
Tenn., requested permission to visit Richmond, for the 
purpose, as he said, of securing from Jefferson Davis and 
those associated with him in the Confederate Government, 
"terms of peace that the Government will accept." This 
application was first made to General Garfield, who, at the 
time, was chief-of-staff to General Rosecrans, in whose army- 
Colonel Jaquess was serving. General Garfield approved of 
the proposed mission of peace and submitted Colonel 
Jaquess' request to General Rosecrans. 

Of his proposed mission Colonel Jaquess said: "I want to 
go to them (the Confederates) to offer them the olive branch; 
to tell them in the name of God and the country that they 
will be welcomed back. ... I do not know what their 
views are; it is not my business to ask. I feel that God has 
laid upon me the duty to go to them and go I must, unless 
my superiors forbid it. 

"I propose no compromise with traitors, but their imme- 
diate return to their allegiance to God and their country. It 
is no part of my business to discuss the probability or the 
possibility of the accomplishment of this work." 

When asked how he would go. Colonel Jaquess said: 
"Openly, in my uniform as the messenger of God." When 
told that he might be shot as a spy, he said: "It is not for 
me to ask what they will do. I have only to go." When 
told that his life was too valuable to be wasted on such an 
Embassy he replied: "That is not for you to judge." 

It will be observed that Colonel Jaquess' proposition was 
not to go to the Confederate leaders, in the name or by the 
authority of the Government of the United States, but in the 
name of the Lord God Almighty, and in His name and by His 
authority, to demand of those leaders a cessation of hostilities 
and a submission to the authority of the Government. In all 
his letters and in his conversation relative to the matter he 



86 LATEST LIGHT ON ABRAHAM LINCOLN 

states his motive and purpose in unequivocal and unqualified 
terms. 

It is interesting to note what Mr. Lincoln and others who 
encouraged this mission hoped that it might accomplish. 
General Rosecrans in introducing this matter to the President 
said: "After maturely weighing his plans and considering well 
his character, I am decidedly of the opinion that the public 
interests will be promoted by permitting him to go as he pro- 
poses. I do not anticipate the results that he seems to expect ; 
but I believe that a moral force will be generated by his 
mission that will more than compensate us for his temporary 
absence from his regiment." "The terms he will offer may 
not be accepted, but it will strengthen our moral position 
to offer them. It will show the world that we do not seek to 
subjugate the South." 

During his first interview with Mr. Gilmore relative to 
this mission, late in May, 1863, President Lincoln said: "Some- 
thing will come out of it, perhaps not what Jaquess expects, 
but what will be of service to the right." 

These preliminary statements respecting Colonel Jaquess 
and his proposition are here made for the purpose of showing 
that the hero of this mission was not a religious fanatic, as 
his strange proposition might seem to indicate, but was a man 
of such exalted nature and practical common sense as to be 
held in high esteem by President Lincoln and other prominent 
men. 

Mr. James R. Gilmore, 

who was identified with the Jaquess Mission from the first, 
who accompanied the Colonel on his second trip to the South, 
in July, 1864, was with him during the interview with Jef- 
ferson Davis, and in his excellent work above referred to 
gives the history of this mission, was a man of exceptional 
worth and reputation. His ability as a lecturer and author, 
and his great sacrifices and labors for the Union cause gave 
him high standing with President Lincoln and with leading 



THE JAQUESS-GILMORE MISSION 87 

men throughout the nation. He was a distinguished magazine 
writer and pubhsher, and was one of Horace Greeley's most 
intimate and trusted editorial associates, and at the time of 
the Jaquess-Gilmore embassy, he was on the editorial staff 
of the New York Tribune. When this mission was first pro- 
posed by Colonel Jaquess in May, 1863, Mr. Gilmore was 
with General Rosecrans at the headquarters of the Army of 
the Cumberland, at Murfreesboro, Tenn., on an important 
mission for Mr. Greeley. 

It is fortunate that two men of such exceptional character 
and integrity, so utterly unlike and yet forming such a com- 
bination of rare excellence as did Colonel Jaquess and Mr. 
Gilmore, were united in this important movement, and that 
from the one most fitted for that service we have a history of 
the affair, so trustworthy and complete, and so full of thrill- 
ing interest and instruction, as is the story of this movement 
in Mr. Gilmore's "Personal Recollections of Abraham Lin- 
coln." 

General Rosecrans was compelled to be at the front dur- 
ing the day Colonel Jaquess' application of May 19th, 1863, 
was received, and, therefore, requested Mr. Gilmore to meet 
the Colonel, who was to call at headquarters that day, to 
hear his proposition and report his impressions relative to the 
matter. It was in this way that Mr. Gilmore was brought 
into this movement. 

When General Rosecrans returned from the front to his 
headquarters Mr. Gilmore reported to the General and ex- 
pressed to him his disapproval of the Jaquess' proposition. 
But General Rosecrans knew Colonel Jaquess as Mr. Gilmore 
did not; he had seen him in camp, in counsel, and in battle, 
and disregarding Mr. Gilmore's unfavorable recommenda- 
tions. General Rosecrans wired President Lincoln stating in 
brief Colonel Jaquess' proposition, and requesting for him a 
furlough and passes to carry out his mission. 



88 LATEST LIGHT ON ABRAHAM LINCOLN 

The President's Refusal and Request 

In response to this request the President at once sent Gen- 
eral Rosecrans the following telegram:^ 

Washington, May 21st, 1863, 4: 40 p.m. 
Major-General Rosecrans: 

For certain reasons it is thought best for Rev. Dr. 
Jaquess not to come here. Present my respects to him and 
ask him to write me fully on the subject he has in contem- 
plation. A. Lincoln. 

There is great significance in the above request by Presi- 
dent Lincoln for fuller information respecting Colonel 
Jaquess' proposition. He was burdened almost beyond en- 
durance with cares and duties which he could not put aside, 
and from which he could not be relieved, and he was con- 
stantly besieged by persons making requests, to which he 
could not possibly give attention. Well-meaning people of 
all classes were persistently commending to him utterly im- 
practicable schemes for the prosecution of the war or the 
hastening of peace; and yet in the midst of this avalanche 
of suggestions and requests, Mr. Lincoln saw in this seem- 
ingly absurd proposition of Colonel Jaquess something which 
arrested and held his attention, and so awakened his deep 
interest as to cause him to ask for full information relative to 
the matter. 

This most remarkable request of the busy, burdened and 
almost distracted President has a double meaning. It bears 
witness to Mr. Lincoln's constant attitude of religious expec- 
tancy. With all his heart and soul he believed that God had 
chosen him to lead the nation at this period of appalling peril 
and that He would guide him in a work as difficult as ever 
taxed the efforts and energies of man. And he was constantly 
alert in listening for the inner voice and in watching for any 
* Complete Works of Abraham Lincoln, Vol. VIII., p. 280. 



THE JAQUESS-GILMORE MISSION 89 

indications by which the Most High would reveal to him his 
path of duty. Never could it be more truly said of any 
human being than could at this time be said of Abraham Lin- 
coln that his eyes waited upon the Lord "As the eyes of 
servants look unto the hand of their masters, and as the eyes 
of a maiden unto the hand of her mistress"^ so that when this 
Jaquess proposition came to him, like the midnight visit of a 
heavenly messenger, it found him eager to learn its purport. 

He believed that he was being led of God, and that the 
nation with all its interests was also under divine guardian- 
ship and guidance; but there was great darkness throughout 
the land. There was probably no period during the war when 
the outlook in the field was more unpromising than at this 
time in the early summer of 1863. To his watchful eye there 
appeared no dawning of a day of glad deliverance; to his lis- 
tening ear there came no voice of divine assurance or encour- 
agement. But Mr. Lincoln's faith was based upon the prom- 
ises of God and he believed that at His own time, and in His 
own way, the Almighty would interpose and bring deliverance 
to the nation. Hence, on that 20th day of May, 1863, when 
he received from General Rosecrans a brief telegraphic state- 
ment of Colonel Jaquess' proposition, he was hopeful that the 
Lord had given to this Christian soldier the message for which 
he was anxiously listening. The subhme religious character 
of the proposition and the confidence in God which it indicated 
elicited Mr. Lincoln's deep interest and awakened his ardent 
sympathy with the proposed movement. 

But quite as potent to arouse and stimulate the interest 
of the President as the proposition of Colonel Jaquess was 
Colonel Jaquess himself. Mr. Lincoln believed thoroughly 
in his sagacity, courage and faith. He knew with what mas- 
terly ability, wisdom and resourcefulness he, as pastor, had 
wrought in Springfield, and he was predisposed to give cre- 
dence to his claim that God had put upon his heart the prose- 
cution of this strange embassy of peace. Mr. Lincoln knew 
3 Psa. 123 : 2. 



90 LATEST LIGHT ON ABRAHAM LINCOLN 

that Colonel Jaquess "walked with God,'' as few men of his 
acquaintance did, and that his close and constant communion 
with his Master enabled him to hear His whispered words of 
confidential counsel and instruction as did the beloved disciple 
who leaned upon the Saviour's breast. 

There is more than confidence and esteem, there is strong 
and tender affection in Mr. Lincoln's request, "Give my re- 
spects to him." That simple sentence as Mr. Lincoln used 
it has in it a whole volume of meaning. 

But Mr. Lincoln was apprehensive that if Colonel 
Jaquess' proposed embassy of peace received the signet of his 
approval as President it would have the appearance of an 
official recognition of the Confederate authorities as a sepa- 
rate government with which he was conducting negotiations 
for peace; and even the appearance of such a recognition he 
was steadfastly and consistently determined to avoid. 

Because of that determination to which he continuously 
adhered Mr. Lincoln declined to grant Colonel Jaquess' re- 
quest for permission to visit Washington. It is significant, 
however, that while refusing to confer with Colonel Jaquess 
personally relative to his proposition, he did not refuse to 
encourage and aid the proposed embassy of peace. In this, 
as in all of President Lincoln's relations to this movement, 
there was revealed his double purpose of having Colonel 
Jaquess visit Richmond as he proposed, but of having him 
do so without any manifestation of governmental approval. 
These two purposes so seemingly in conflict, and yet so fully 
in accord, are seen at every stage of these proceedings. To 
accomplish these two results Mr. Lincoln made provision in 
his first telegram to General Rosecrans relative to the matter, 
by requesting Colonel Jaquess to explain his purposes in writ- 
ing while declining to permit him to visit Washington in the 
interest of the movement. 

When, on May 21st, 1863, General Rosecrans received 
the telegram from President Lincoln declining to grant Col- 
onel Jaquess' request, and asking for written information 



THE JAQUESS-GILMORE MISSION 91 

relative to his proposition, he at once forwarded to the Presi- 
dent Colonel Jaquess' letter of May 19th, and at the same 
time sent the President's telegram to the Colonel at the head- 
quarters of his regiment in Murf reesboro. 

General Rosecrans evidently expected that when Colonel 
Jaquess confronted Mr. Lincoln's prompt refusal of his re- 
quest, he would abandon his proposed mission; but he had 
not yet fully measured the unyielding determination of this 
consecrated Christian soldier, nor the extent to which his mind 
and heart were set upon the prosecution of this mission. The 
determination of Colonel Jaquess to prosecute this mission 
was like a mountain stream which rises higher and higher 
until it pours its crystal waters over the dam which is erected 
to arrest its progress. It was augmented rather than dimin- 
ished by the President's refusal. Nothing could have been 
more characteristic of the Colonel than his answer to the 
General's intimation that because of the President's refusal 
to grant his request the work could not be prosecuted ; and his 
insisting that the General's request for the furlough and passes 
should be renewed and that Mr. Gilmore personally should 
visit the President and urge him to consent to the movement. 
This suggestion seemed so preposterous to Mr. Gilmore that 
according to his own statement he burst into a hearty laugh, 
by which he intended to indicate his unwillingness to engage in 
such a mission. But he was instantly sobered by General Rose- 
crans' prompt reply: "Yes, that is it. You imist go." So, ar- 
rangements were made for Mr. Gilmore to visit the President 
at Washington, and personally to hand him a letter addressed 
to him from Colonel Jaquess, together with the following 
letter from General Rosecrans: 

Headquarters Department of the Cumberland, 

Murf reesboro, Tenn., May 21st, 1863. 
To his Excellency, the President of the United States: 

The Rev. Dr. Jaquess, Colonel commanding the 73rd 
Illinois, a man of character, has submitted to me a letter 



92 LATEST LIGHT ON ABRAHAM LINCOLN 

proposing a personal mission to the South. After maturely 
weighing his plans, and considering well his character, I am 
decidedly of opinion that the public interests will be promoted 
by permitting him to go as he proposes. 

I do not anticipate the results that he seems to expect, 
but I believe a moral force will be generated by his mission 
that will more than compensate us for his temporary absence 
from his regiment. 

His letter is herein enclosed, and the bearer of this, Mr. 
Gilmore, can fully explain Colonel Jaquess' plans and 
purposes. 

Very respectfully, 

W. S. RosECRANs, Major-General. 

This letter to the President was written by General Rose- 
crans on May 21st, 1863, after he had received Mr. Lincoln's 
telegram of the same date, and had held a conference with 
Mr. Gilmore and the Colonel relative to its contents. Colonel 
Jaquess' letter to the President was dated two days later, and 
is as follows: 

Murfreesboro, Tenn., May 23, 1863. 
Hon. A. Lincoln, President, U. S. A. : 

My dear Sir — This, with other papers, will be handed 
to you by Mr. Gilmore, who has been introduced to me by 
General Rosecrans. Mr. G. will explain to you in full what 
I propose to do. Meanwhile, should you feel that my propo- 
sition is too strong, and cannot be realized, I would say, I may 
not be able to reach the specific object stated in the proposition, 
but the mission cannot fail to accomplish great good. 

It is a fact well known to me and others, perhaps to your- 
self, that much sympathy exists in the minds of many good 
people, both in this country and England, for the South, on 
the ground of their professed piety. They say, "Mr. Davis 
is a praying man," "many of his people are devotedly pious," 
etc., etc. Now, you will admit that, if they hear me, I have 
gained a point. On the other hand, if Mr. Davis and his asso- 



THE JAOUESS-GILMORE MISSION 93 

dates m rebellion refuse me, coming to them in the name of the 
Lord on a mission of peace, the question of their piety is 
settled at once and forever. Should I be treated with violence, 
and cast into prison, shot or hanged — which may be part of 
my mission — then the doom of the Southern Confederacy is 
sealed on earth and in heaven forever. My dear Mr. Lin- 
coln will excuse me when I say that I am ready for any 
emergency, and though not Samson, I should, like him, slay 
more at my death than in all my life at the head of my regi- 
ment. No, the mission cannot fail. God's hand is in it. I 
am not seeking a martyr's crown, but simply to meet the duty 
that has been laid upon me. 

I have talked freely with Mr. Gilmore, and he will explain 
to you more fully, if you desire. To him I would refer you, 
and with my best wishes and prayers, I am, dear sir, 
Your obedient servant, 

James F. Jaquess, 
Colonel Com'd'g 73d Illinois Infantry. 

With the foregoing letters from General Rosecrans and 
from Colonel Jaquess, Mr. Gilmore, at the General's request, 
proceeded to Washington; but travel in those war times was 
very difficult and slow, and before he reached that city, Presi- 
dent Lincoln had received, by mail, Colonel Jaquess' letter of 
May 19th, and on the 28th had written General Rosecrans say- 
ing: "Such a mission as he proposes I think promises good if it 
were free from difficulties, which I fear it cannot be. First 
he cannot go with any Government authority whatever. This 
is absolute and imperative. Secondly, if he goes without 
authority he takes a great deal of personal risk — he may be 
condemned and executed as a spy. 

"If for any reason you think fit to give Colonel Jaquess 
a furlough, and any authority from me for that object is 
necessary, you hereby have it for any length of time you 
see f^t." 

Without any knowledge of the above letter from the Pres- 



94 LATEST LIGHT ON ABRAHAM LINCOLN 

ident, Mr. Gilmore on the last of May, gave President Lin 
coin the foregoing letters from General Rosecrans and Colonel 
Jaquess, and during the long interview which followed Mr. 
Lincoln said: 

"I fear we can come to no adjustment. I fear the war 
must go on till the North and South have both drunk of the 
cup to the very dregs, till both have worked out in pain and 
grief and bitter humiliation the sin of two hundred years. 
It has seemed to me that God so wills it ; and the first gleam 
I have had of a hope to the contrary is in this letter of 
Jaquess. This thing, irregular as it is, may mean that the 
Higher Powers are about to take a hand in this business and 
bring about a settlement. 

*T want peace. I want to stop this terrible waste of life 
and property, and I know Colonel Jaquess well, and I see 
that working in the way he proposes he may be able to bring 
influences to bear upon Davis that he cannot well resist, and 
thus pave the way for an honorable settlement. ... He 
proposes here to speak to them in the name of the Lord ; and 
he says he feels that God's hand is in it, and He has laid the 
duty upon him. Now, if he feels that he has that kind of 
authority, he cannot fail to affect the element on which he 
expects to operate. . . . Such talk in you or me might 
sound fanatical, but in Jaquess it is simply natural and sincere. 
And I am not at all sure that he is not right. God selects 
His own instruments and sometimes they are queer ones, for 
instance, He chose me to steer the ship through a great crisis. 
. . . He (Jaquess) can do no more than open the door 
for further negotiations, which would have to be conducted 
with me here in a regular way. 

"Here is a man, cool, deliberate. God-fearing, of excep- 
tional sagacity and worldly wisdom, who undertakes a project 
that strikes you and me as utterly chimerical; he attempts to 
bring about, single-handed and on his own hook, a peace be- 
tween two great sections. Moreover, he gets it into his head 
that God has laid this work upon him, and he is willing to 



THE JAQUESS-GILMORE MISSION 95 

stake his life upon that conviction. The impulse on him is 
overpowering, as it was upon Luther, when he said, 'God 
help me. I can do no otherwise,' 

"Can you account for this except on his own supposition 
that God is in it. And if that be so, something will come out 
of it, perhaps not what Jaquess expects, but what will be of 
service to the right. So, though there is risk about it, I shall 
let him go." 

The First Embassy 

And Colonel Jaquess went. Without having seen the 
President, without any commission or authority from the 
government, without a convoy or companion, but with unques- 
tioning confidence in his divine call and commission, early in 
July, 1863, he courageously entered upon and prosecuted his 
remarkable mission. 

That this mission might not have the appearance of a 
recognition of the Confederate Government, the President 
insisted that knowledge of the proposition should be limited 
to, and held in strict confidence by the only persons who had 
any information respecting it. Those persons were President 
Lincoln, Generals Rosecrans, Thomas and Garfield, Colonel 
Jaquess and Mr. Gilmore. Apart from these six persons no 
one at that time had any knowledge or intimation of the 
existence of this unique mission. Subsequent events required 
that two and possibly three army officers, whose co-operation 
was needed, be informed respecting this affair. But no one 
in any way connected with the administration, and, apart from 
the President, no inmate of the White House — not even the 
President's private secretaries — at that time had any knowl- 
edge of this Embassy of Peace. 

Immediately upon Mr. Lincoln's decision to grant the 
Colonel leave of absence and permission to visit the South, 
Mr. Gilmore informed General Rosecrans of the President's 
decision. His letter was answered by Major Frank S. Bond, 
Senior aide to General Rosecrans, in a communication dated 



96 LATEST LIGHT ON ABRAHAM LINCOLN 

June 4th, 1863, in which he said: "On receipt of your letter 
I sent for Colonel Jaquess and had a talk with him. He says 
he does not wish to start at once if the Army is to move." 

The purpose, if possible, to conduct the embassy of peace 
had become all-dominant in the soul of Colonel Jaquess, but, 
like a true soldier, he realized that his first obligation at that 
time was to bear his part in the activities of the army with 
which he was connected. Hence, though he was yearning to 
enter upon his mission, he preferred to remain at his post if 
a battle was likely to occur. But there was no forward move- 
ment or engagement of the army, and Colonel Jaquess pro- 
ceeded on his unique and strange mission. Starting from 
jMurfreesboro he went directly to Baltimore, where General 
Robert C. Schenck was in command. 

It was probably because it was Mr. Lincoln's purpose to 
keep the knowledge of this movement from all who had not 
been already consulted respecting it, that he permitted Colonel 
Jaquess to go forth upon this work without a pass and with- 
out any request that permission to proceed should be given 
by army commanders at points along his journey. How he 
could expect Colonel Jaquess to proceed on his mission with- 
out the permission of leading army officers, and how he should 
expect such army officers to grant permission to pass through 
the lines without his request is difficult to understand. 

The President may have believed that Colonel Jaquess' 
sublime trust in God would enable him in some proper way 
to secure the permission which he must have and for which 
Mr. Lincoln was unwilling to make request. Or more prob- 
ably, the President had confidential understanding with his 
army commanders by which he could make known to them 
his wishes without a direct written statement. 

During the history of this movement there were several 
events which go far to justify the conviction that such an 
undeclared understanding existed between the President and 
commanders in the Army. At all events, on the 13th of July, 
1863, General Schenck sent from Baltimore the following 



THE JAOUESS-GILMORE MISSION 97 

telegram to President Lincoln: "Colonel James F. Jaquess, 
73d Illinois Infantry, is here from the Army of the Cum- 
berland. He desires me to send him to Fort Monroe. Shall 
I do so? He says you understand." 

To this telegram the President, on the 14th of July, made 
the following reply: "Mr. Jaquess is a very worthy gentleman, 
but I can have nothing to do, directly or indirectly, with the 
matter he has in view." 

After such a message from the President, how was it pos- 
sible for Colonel Jaquess to proceed? To this question there 
is no known answer, but it is known that he did proceed upon 
his mission, and by such rightful and proper methods as se- 
cured him permission to continue on his mission until he 
entered the Confederate lines. In the whole of human history 
there are few events which, in thrilling, dramatic interest, 
compare with the one we are now considering. An ordinary 
imagination can picture the fascinating scene which it pre- 
sents. In the bright sunlight of a southern July we see this 
frontier minister of the gospel, erect in form and clad in the 
uniform of an army officer, proceeding alone in the direction 
of the Confederate capital. He is going forth into a hos- 
tile country with no authority save that of the Almighty, 
to demand of the proud and haughty leaders of the rebellion 
a cessation of the warfare they were conducting against the 
Government, and their full submission to that Government's 
authority. This demand he proposes to make, not in the 
name of the Federal Government, but in the name of the 
Almighty. Who else of all the heroes of ancient or modern 
history ever proceeded on a similar errand, without authority 
and without human companionship? And this scene appears 
the more marvelous when it is remembered that those for 
whom Colonel Jaquess proposes to make this demand were 
just at that time in the very depths of darkness and despon- 
dency. Everywhere in all the field of military conflict results 
seemed at that time most unfavorable to the Union cause. 
Mr. Gilmore tells us that he never saw President Lincoln 



98 LATEST LIGHT ON ABRAHAM LINCOLN 

seemingly so discouraged and depressed as during the inter- 
view at wliich he declared his purpose to permit Colonel 
Jaquess to proceed on his mission. And the picture of this 
scene takes on its high colors of dramatic interest when it is 
remembered that just at the time Colonel Jaquess was pro- 
ceeding as rapidly as possible toward the Confederate capital 
the great Southern Army, under their able commander — 
General Robert E. Lee — was moving northward, flushed with 
their recent victories and unquestioningly confident of imme- 
diate and ultimate success. Has pen of poet or historian ever 
given to the world a story more unique and fascinating? 

It was in consonance with the wonderful presence-power 
of Colonel Jaquess that though clad in his military uniform, 
he was everywhere received with kindness by the officers 
and soldiers of the Confederate Army. His strong person- 
ality, his evident sincerity, his sublime faith and favor of 
God, gave him safe conduct at every point. General Long- 
street, a distinguished Confederate commander, went forth 
to meet and welcome this volunteer ambassador of God. 
Respecting his experiences on this mission. Colonel Jaquess 
says: "I entered upon my mission, passed into the Confederate 
lines, met a most cordial reception, was received by those to 
whom my mission was directed as a visitant from the other 
world, and was strongly urged not to cease my efforts till the 
end was accomplished." 

End of First Embassy 

Learning that he could not proceed further on his mission 
without additional authority. Colonel Jaquess, after a brief 
sojourn in the South, returned to Baltimore, and from that 
city sent a letter to President Lincoln stating that he had 
valuable information to impart, and requesting an interview 
for that purpose. 

The letter in which Colonel Jaquess made this request 
was never received by President Lincoln. His secretary, to 
whom at that time was entrusted the opening and sorting of 



THE JAOUESS-GILMORE MISSION 99 

his mail, having no knowledge of this movement, naturally 
regarded this letter as one of the numberless messages then 
being received by the President, from the consideration of 
which he was properly relieved. 

For two weeks Colonel Jaquess waited anxiously and in 
vain at Baltimore for word from President Lincoln, and 
learning that a battle was likely to be fought by the army 
with which he was connected, he hastened to the front and 
joined his regiment just in time to participate in the bloody 
battle of Chattanooga. In this battle two hundred of the men 
under his command, including nineteen commissioned officers, 
were killed or wounded, and two horses were shot under him 
as he was leading his regiment in the battle. 

Request Renewed 

At length there was a lull in military movements, and on 
the 4th of November, 1863, Colonel Jaquess addressed a letter 
to Mr. Gilmore, giving an account of his proceedings and 
expressing a desire to re-enter upon his embassy of peace. 
Up to this time no word had been received by the President 
or Mr. Gilmore respecting Colonel Jaquess and his move- 
ments after his departure from Baltimore in the middle of 
July, 1863. When President Lincoln consented to Colonel 
Jaquess' entrance upon the work, he said to Mr. Gilmore: 
"I shall be anxious to hear of him and I wish you would 
send me the first word you get." But Mr. Gilmore, though 
frequently seeing the President during those months, had no 
information to give in answer to inquiries concerning the 
Colonel. 

Mr. Gilmore, in response to Colonel Jaquess' letter of 
November 4th, 1863, making request for an opportunity to 
renew the prosecution of his mission of peace, mentioned the 
matter to President Lincoln, and at length, through General 
James A. Garfield, who knew of this mission from its be- 
ginning in May, 1863, and a member of Congress at the time 
this second request of Colonel Jaquess was made, secured 



100 LATEST LIGHT ON ABRAHAM LINCOLN 

permission to bring Colonel Jaquess to the White House for 
an interview with the President. But such were the move- 
ments of the army, and the interference of other matters, 
that the Colonel was unable to visit Washington until early 
in July, 1864, thirteen months after he started on his first 
embassy to the South. 

The Second Embassy 

From the beginning of this movement, as I already have 
shown, Mr. Lincoln and all who were connected with it were 
in great uncertainty respecting what it might accomplish. 
General Rosecrans, on the 21st day of May, 1863, when 
recommending the proposition to Mr. Lincoln's approval, 
stated that he did not anticipate the results which Colonel 
Jaquess expected, but believed that it would result in great 
good. President Lincoln repeatedly expressed a like convic- 
tion concerning the achievements of the mission. And even 
Colonel Jaquess, in his first letter to the President stated that 
it might not accomplish precisely what he hoped, though it 
would do much good. But he never deviated from his pur- 
pose to make demand that there should be an immediate 
cessation of hostilities, trusting wholly in God for the final 
issue of the matter. 

President Lincoln, at the time of his interview with Mr. 
Gilmore, early in April, 1864, having become convinced that 
the embassy would be unsuccessful in securing the results at 
which it aimed, had decided to give it no further countenance 
or encouragement. But Mr. Gilmore, who was thoroughly 
informed respecting conditions throughout the country and 
had become deeply interested in the mission, had come to see 
in it the possibility of other most desirable results. These 
he brought to the attention of the President, by reminding him 
of the danger of his defeat as a candidate for re-election, 
because of the conviction that was rapidly gaining strength 
that the Confederate leaders were willing to accept peace upon 
the single basis of the restoration of the Union. 



THE JAOUESS-GILMORE MISSION loi 

Mr. Gilmore expressed to President Lincoln the conviction 
that Colonel Jaquess, by visiting Jefferson Davis at Richmond, 
and in the name of God demanding of him submission to the 
authority of the national Government, could secure from the 
Confederate chieftain, even if he declined his overtures for 
peace, a declaration that upon no condition save the indepen- 
dence of the South would any terms of peace be accepted. 
Such a declaration from Mr. Davis would silence the clamors 
for peace by convincing the loyal people that it could be se- 
cured only by the re-election of President Lincoln and the 
vigorous and successful prosecution of the war, 

Mr. Lincoln was a far-seeing politician and instantly 
recognized the wisdom of Mr. Gilmore's suggestion and the 
possibility by this mission of securing from Mr. Davis the 
desired declaration. Therefore, at the conclusion of Mr. 
Gilmore's explanation, Mr. Lincoln said: "There is something 
in what you say. But Jaquess could not do it — he could not 
draw Davis' fire. He is too honest. You are the man for 
that business." 

To this statement by the President, Mr. Gilmore replied: 
"Colonel Jaquess' honesty and sincerity exactly fit him for the 
business. Davis is astute and wary, but the Colonel's trans- 
parent honesty would disarm him completely." 

"Have you suggested this to Jaquess?" said the President. 

"No," replied Mr. Gilmore. 

"Well, if you propose it to him he will tell you he won't 
have anything to do with the business. He feels that he is 
acting as God's servant and messenger, and he would recoil 
from anything like political finesse. But if Davis should make 
the declaration that no peace would be accepted without 
Southern independence the country should know it, and I can 
see that coming from him now, when everybody is tired of 
the war, and so many think some honorable settlement can be 
made, it might be of vital importance to us. But I tell you 
that not Jaquess but you are the man for that business." 



102 LATEST LIGHT ON ABRAHAM LINCOLN 

This latter statement was a shock of surprise to Mr. Gil- 
more. Evidently there had not dawned upon his mind a 
thought of the possibility of his being asked by the President 
to undertake this mission. 

His remonstrances, however, were all in vain. The Presi- 
dent had become deeply interested in the proposition and was 
insistent that it should be conducted not by Jaquess but by 
Mr. Gilmore. 

"This," said Mr. Gilmore, "is a new and unexpected 
thought to me, Mr. Lincoln. Will you allow me to consider 
it and talk it over with Mr. Chase and General Garfield?" 

"Certainly," the President answered, "talk with them and 
bring them both here with you this evening. I should like 
to confer with them myself — with Chase particularly. Tell 
him so." 

That evening Mr. Gilmore visited the President, accom- 
panied by Mr. Chase, who had only a few days before retired 
from the President's Cabinet. General Garfield was not pres- 
ent because of his absence from the city. When Mr. Lincoln 
learned that General Garfield could not be present he said to 
Mr. Chase: "Well, I wanted you particularly. This is a deli- 
cate and important business and I did not want to start it 
without your advice." 

"I know you are sincere In that expression, Mr. Lincoln," 
said Mr. Chase, "and I feel honored by it." 

"Well, sit down, both of you," said Mr. Lincoln, "and 
let us get to business. Now, Mr. Gilmore, you have decided 
to ask me for a pass into the rebel lines?" 

"I have, sir," answered Mr. Gilmore, "on the condition 
that you allow me to make such overtures to Davis as will 
put him entirely in the wrong if he should reject them." 

"Well," said Mr. Lincoln, "Mr. Chase and I will talk 
about that in a moment. But, first, another question: Do 
you understand that I neither suggest, nor request, nor direct 
you to take this journey?" 

"I do," promptly replied Mr. Gilmore. v 



THE JAOUESS-GILMORE MISSION 103 

"And will you say so," asked the President, "if it should 
seem to me to be necessary?" 

"I will, whether you ask it of me or not," was the prompt 
response. 

"And," said Mr. Lincoln, "if those people should hold 
on to you, — should give you free lodgings till our election is 
over, or in any other manner treat you unlike gentlemen, — 
do you understand that I shall be absolutely powerless to help 
you?" 

"I understand that, sir, fully," said Mr. Gilmore. 

"And you are willing to go?" 

In answer to this question Mr. Gilmore expressed his 
willingness, with that understanding, to undertake the mission. 

For two hours and more President Lincoln and Mr. Chase 
conferred together respecting the terms of peace which Gil- 
more and Jaquess would be authorized to state to the Con- 
federate leaders as those which President Lincoln and the 
Government would probably be willing to accept. 

The terms as dictated to Mr. Gilmore by Mr. Lincoln, 
and approved by Mr. Chase, were as follows: 

First. The immediate dissolution of the Southern Gov- 
ernment, and the disbandment of its armies; and the acknowl- 
edgment by all the States in rebellion of the supremacy of 
the Union. 

Second. The total and absolute abolition of slavery in 
every one of the late Slave States and throughout the Union. 
This to be perpetual. 

Third. Full amnesty to all who have been in any way 
engaged in the rebellion, and their restoration to all the rights 
of citizenship. 

Fourth. All acts of secession to be regarded as nullities; 
and the late rebellious states to be, and be regarded, as if they 
had never attempted to secede from the Union. Represen- 
tation in the House from the recent Slave States to be on the 
basis of their voting population. 

Fifth. The sum of five hundred millions, in United States 



104 LATEST LIGHT ON ABRAHAM LINCOLN 

stock, to be issued and divided between the late Slave States, 
to be used by them in payment to slave owners, loyal and 
disloyal, for the slaves emancipated by my proclamation. This 
sum to be divided among the late slave owners, equally and 
equitably, at the rate of one-half the value of the slaves in 
the year i860; and if any surplus remain, it to be returned 
to the United States Treasury. 

Sixth. A national convention to be convened as soon as 
practicable, to ratify this settlement, and make such changes 
in the Constitution as may be in accord with the new order of 
things. 

Seventh. The intent and meaning of all the foregoing is 
that the Union shall be wholly restored as it was before the 
Rebellion, with the exception that all slaves within its borders 
are, and shall forever be, freemen. 

After the terms upon which they finally agreed had been 
written out in full, Mr. Chase said: "Mr. Davis is not likely 
to accept the offer. Mr. Gilmore is confident that he will not 
accept peace without separation. To get his declaration to that 
effect is why you send Gilmore?" 

To this the President replied: "True, but peace may pos- 
sibly come out of this and I do not want to say a word that 
is not in good faith. We want to draw Davis' fire, but we 
must do it fairly. 

"What I think of most is the risk Gilmore will run. The 
case is not the same with him as with Jaquess. There is some- 
thing about that man, a kind of 'thus saith the Lord,' that 
would protect him anywhere. But Gilmore is not Jaquess. 
He will go in with my pass, and the rebels won't talk with 
him five minutes before they ascertain that he is fully pos- 
sessed of my views. He will say he does not represent me; 
but they will think they know better. Now, as the thing they 
want most is our recognition of them, may they not hold 
on to him, to force me to some step for his protection that shall 
recognize them? And if they decline the overtures, as they 
probably will, is it not likely they will refuse to let him out 



THE JAQUESS-GILMORE MISSION 105 

before our election, because of the damage he may do their 
friends by pubHshing the facts to the country? Now, Mr. 
Chase, can you see any way by which I can protect him ?" 

"I cannot," repHed Mr. Chase, "unless you should copy 
the proposals into a letter addressed to Mr. Gilmore, sign it, 
and in it request him to read it to Mr. Davis. That would 
give him a semi-official character, and they would not dare to 
molest him." 

"That I can't do," said Mr. Lincoln. "It would be making 
direct overtures. I don't see, Gilmore, but you will have to 
trust in the Lord; only be sure to keep your powder dry." 

Mr. Gilmore then informed the President that Colonel 
Jaquess had agreed to accompany him, and said: "I should 
hesitate to go without him, as I should need the help of his 
cool courage to give me the backbone requisite for the occa- 
sion." 

The President then gave Mr. Gilmore the following pass: 

"Will General Grant allow James R. Gilmore and friend 
to pass our lines with ordinary baggage and go South. 

"A. Lincoln. 
"July 6th, 1864." 

As he handed Mr. Gilmore this necessary pass the Presi- 
dent said: "Tell Colonel Jaquess that I omitted his name on 
account of the talk about his previous trip, and I wish you 
would explain to him my refusal to see him. I want him to 
feel kindly to me." No one can read these remarkable words 
of Mr. Lincoln without realizing that the great President 
cherished for this peculiar and remarkable soldier not only 
very high esteem but tender and loving regard. 

When this prolonged interview between President Lincoln, 
Mr. Chase and Mr. Gilmore had accomplished its purpose, 
and his two guests arose to depart, Mr. Lincoln cordially said: 
"Good night, Mr. Chase," and then taking Mr. Gilmore lov- 
ingly by the hand he said: "God bless and prosper you. My 
good wishes will be with you. Good-bye." And then, still 



io6 LATEST LIGHT ON ABRAHAM LINCOLN 

holding Mr. Gllmore by the hand and with seeming great 
depth of feehng, he added: "Have you looked squarely in the 
face that if you get into trouble I can in no way help you. 
That I shall be obliged to say that while I have given you 
the terms on which I am personally willing to settle this thing, 
I have not authorized you to offer these or any terms what- 
ever?" 

To this Mr. Gilmore rephed: "I think the object, sir, is 
worth the risk. I shall tell Davis distinctly that I have no 
authority and only desire to open the door for official nego- 
tiations." 

It should be borne in mind that Colonel Jaquess was not 
present at this interview and knew nothing of the political 
features which the movement had taken on. His mind was 
wholly occupied with his divine call and commission from 
which he never for a moment allowed his attention to be 
diverted. 

It was on the evening of the 6th of July, 1864, that James 
R. Gilmore, walking beside the magnificent form of Salmon 
P. Chase, emerged from the presence of Abraham Lincoln 
and from the White House to go forth on the following day 
with Colonel Jaquess "into the jaws of death" to endeavor 
to aid in rescuing the nation from the greatest peril in all its 
history. 

The Peace Peril 

That peril arose from the fact that when those volunteer 
envoys started on their mission in July, 1864, conditions 
throughout the country were very different from those which 
existed in May, 1863, when this mission was first suggested 
by Colonel Jaquess. There had been a year and a half of 
experience under the Emancipation Proclamation; the Con- 
stitutional Amendment abolishing slavery had passed the 
senate by a very large majority, and though defeated in the 
House, arrangements had been made for a reconsideration of 
the vote, and there were strong indications that at the next 



THE JAQUESS-GILMORE MISSION 107 

session that amendment would pass the House, and would 
beyond all question be approved by the requisite three-fourths 
of the States. 

In addition to these advance movements in civil affairs, 
more than one hundred and fifty thousand colored soldiers 
had enlisted in the Federal army and were doing excellent 
military service. The great and important victories at Gettys- 
bury, and Vicksburg and vicinity, had been won; Lee, with 
his great army, had been driven back into the South; Grant 
had been put in command of all the Union forces and was 
steadily advancing toward the Confederate capital; Sherman 
was prosecuting his memorable march toward the sea ; Sheri- 
dan was leading his army forward with uninterrupted success, 
and an early cessation of hostilities seemed likely soon to be 
accomplished by military force. 

But, notwithstanding these auspicious conditions in the 
field, an appalling peril threatened the life of the nation from 
the danger of the defeat in November of President Lincoln, 
who was a candidate for re-election. So unpromising at this 
time was the military outlook for the Confederates that their 
only hope of avoiding early and overwhelming defeat de- 
pended on the movement then being prosecuted with all pos- 
sible vigor for the election of an opposition President who, 
for the sake of peace, would consent to national dismember- 
ment. 

When General Neal Dow was released from Libby Prison, 
in which he had spent eight months as a prisoner, and was 
exchanged for General Fitzhugh Lee, on the journey to his 
home in Maine he visited Washington and was accorded a 
magnificent ovation in the national House of Representatives. 
This was fittingly followed by personal greetings of members 
of the House which was worthy of the veteran military leader 
and the champion of civic righteousness. 

Respecting what occurred upon that occasion. General 
Dow said: "At that time a strong effort was made in influ- 
ential quarters to substitute some other candidate than Mr. 



io8 LATEST LIGHT ON ABRAHAM LINCOLN 

Lincoln for the ensuing Presidential election. The members 
of the House crowded about me to know what effect such a 
measure would have at the South. Great was the joy of those 
surrounding me when I said: The rebels are now exhausted 
of money and men and hope; their only chance is that Mr. 
Lincoln may be set aside, as they would regard that as a 
repudiation of his policy, and nre sure that peace to the Con- 
federacy, with formal dissolution of the Union, would fol- 
low.' "' 

The Confederate leaders were not only deeply interested 
in the movement for the defeat of President Lincoln, but were 
endeavoring to accomplish that result by keeping a strong 
commission of the ablest politicians of the South constantly 
at Niagara Falls to confer and co-operate with their allies 
in the North respecting this matter. Those commissioners 
were for months in frequent and prolonged consultation with 
leaders of the opposition movement to secure such action of 
the Chicago Democratic Convention as would accomplish the 
result for which they were striving. 

In his "Southern History of the War," E. A. Pollard, an 
ardent Confederate, says: "No doubt can rest in history, that 
at the time of the Chicago Convention (which named 
McClellan) the democratic party in the North had prepared 
a secret program of operations, the final and inevitable con- 
clusion of which was the acknowledgment of the Confederate 
states." 

In commenting on this declaration of Mr. Pollard, Horace 
Greeley said: "We have always supposed that there was a 
general understanding arrived at between the rebel commis- 
sioners in Canada and their democratic visitors from this side 
as to what should be said and done at Chicago." 

Relative to that Confederate Commission at Niagara Falls, 
and Its purpose. President Lincoln, on July 25th, 1864, in a 
letter to Abram Wakeman, postmaster of New York City, 
said: 

* Abraham Lincoln, Tributes from his Associates, p. 93. 



THE JAQUESS-GILMORE MISSION 109 

"The men of the South recently (and perhaps still) at 
Niagara Falls tell us distinctly that they are in the confidential 
employment of the Rebellion; and they tell us as distinctly 
that they are not empowered to offer terms of peace. Does 
any one doubt that what they are empowered to do is to 
assist in selecting and arranging a candidate and a platform 
for the Chicago convention? . . . Thus the present Presi- 
dential contest will almost certainly be no other than a contest 
between a union and a disunion candidate, disunion certainly 
following the success of the latter. The issue is a mighty one 
for all people and all times, and whoever aids the right will 
be appreciated and remembered."^ 

During all the summer of 1864 those Confederate com- 
missioners remained at Niagara Falls. They were thus in 
close touch with their friends, the leaders of the peace party 
in the loyal states, and their presence at the Falls afforded 
those leaders seeming justification for the claim that they 
were there for the purpose of endeavoring to secure peace by 
negotiation. This utterly untruthful claim was urged by those 
peace leaders with very great vigor and enthusiasm, and was 
given a marvelous degree of credence by a constantly increas- 
ing number of loyal people in the North. 

The Confederate leaders never had uttered a word that 
would justify these claims and many times had declared that 
they would never consider any terms of peace without dis- 
union and Southern independence. But during this Presiden- 
tial campaign they had cunningly remained silent respecting 
this matter, in order to afford their friends in the North seem- 
ing justification for the claim that they had been sobered by 
reverses in the field, and were ready to negotiate for peace 
with "The Constitution as it is and the Union as it was." 

The Interview with Jefferson Davis 

Just at this crisis, when the false claims of the opposition 
were being given such wide credence, and when to those of 
^ Complete Works of Abraham Lincoln, Vol. X., pp. 170-171, 



no LATEST LIGHT ON ABRAHAM LINCOLN 

us who were active in the work of national preservation, 
it seemed that the nation was rapidly drifting upon the nearby 
rocks of national dismemberment, on the /th of July, 1864, 
the volunteer ambassadors of peace — Jaquess and Gilmore — 
went forth from Washington, D. C, the one in the name 
of God, to demand of Jefferson Davis and his associates 
submission to the authority of the national government; and 
the other, in case this demand was rejected, to bring back 
and proclaim throughout the nation declarations which that 
Confederate leader should make, and which were expected 
to give the lie to the claims being made respecting the pos- 
sibility of a peaceable restoration of the Union. Such a decla- 
ration, if secured and widely published, would stop the mouths 
of those who were declaring the war a failure, and demanding 
a dishonorable and destructive peace. 

On July 9th, the second day after their departure from 
Washington, Mr. Gilmore and Colonel Jaquess arrived at 
City Point, and were cordially received by General Grant, 
who expressed great delight at meeting Colonel Jaquess, with 
whom he was well acquainted and of whom he had a very 
high opinion. When informed that they desired to visit 
Richmond, General Grant was doubtful of his ability to secure 
for them the permission of the Confederate authorities to 
do so. 

But after several days, during which they were guests of 
General Butler, the permission was received, when an unex- 
pected and seemingly insurmountable obstacle was encoun- 
tered in the peremptory refusal of General Grant to permit 
them to proceed unless he was informed respecting the pur- 
poses for which they wished to visit Richmond. Mr. Lincoln's 
written pass given to Mr, Gilmore did not avail to cause 
General Grant to relent ; but after he had wired the President, 
at Mr. Gilmore's suggestion, and had received his answer, he 
not only opened the way for them to proceed on their journey, 
but gave them an imposing escort to the Confederate lines. 
General Grant's sudden change of mind and his arrangements 



THE JAQUESS-GILMORE MISSION iii 

for the continuance of the journey of these envoys was 
another illustration of President Lincoln's purpose to see that 
these two self-appointed ambassadors should have the oppor- 
tunity to prosecute their mission unhindered by any obstacle 
within the Union lines. What he said that night in his tele- 
graphic reply to General Grant is not known, but we are 
assured that his message was so worded as to cause his hand 
to be unseen in opening to them the doors which General 
Grant's military prudence had closed, and in causing them to 
be provided by General Grant with such a distinguished escort 
as made upon the Confederate officers a profound and favor- 
able impression. 

When Mr. Gilmore and Colonel Jaquess finally reached 
the Confederate capital they were placed under strict sur- 
veillance, which continued by day and night until their de- 
parture for the North. They were, however, treated with 
marked courtesy and were granted the desired interview with 
Jefferson Davis and the Hon. Judah P. Benjamin, the Con- 
federate Secretary of State. 

At the preliminary interview with Mr. Benjamin, Colonel 
Jaquess said: "We bring no overtures and have no authority 
from our Government. We stated that in our note. We 
would be glad, however, to know what terms would be accept- 
able to Mr. Davis. If they at all harmonize with Mr. Lin- 
coln's views we will report them to him, and so open the door 
for official negotiations." 

When asked, "Did Mr. Lincoln in any way authorize you 
to come here?" Colonel Jaquess replied: "No, sir. We come 
with his pass, but not by his request. We say distinctly we 
have no official or unofficial authority. We come as men and 
Christians, not as diplomats, hoping, in a frank talk with 
Mr. Davis to discover some way by which this war may be 
stopped." 

With this frank and unequivocal statement made by Colo- 
nel Jaquess to Mr. Benjamin, the requested interview with 
Mr. Davis was secured, and the terms of peace agreed upon 



112 LATEST LIGHT ON ABRAHAM LINCOLN 

by President Lincoln and Mr. Chase were submitted. And it 
was stated that while they had no authority to submit any 
terms, there was reason for the belief that the terms stated 
would be acceptable to Mr. Lincoln and the government. 

At the beginning of the interview Colonel Jaquess said 
to Mr. Davis: "We have asked this interview in the hope 
that you may suggest some way by which this war may be 
stopped. Our people want peace, your people do, and your 
Congress has recently said that you do. We have come to 
ask how it can be brought about." 

To this statement Mr. Davis with characteristic assurance 
replied: "In a very simple way. Withdraw your armies from 
our territory and peace will come of itself. . . . Let us 
alone, and peace will come at once." 

"But," replied the Colonel, "we cannot let you alone so 
long as you repudiate the Union; that is the one thing the 
Northern people will not surrender." 

"I know," said Mr. Davis. "You would deny to us what 
you exact for yourselves — the right of self-government. . . . 
You have shown such bitterness toward the South, you have 
put such an ocean of blood between the two countries that I 
despair of seeing any harmony in my time. Our children may 
forget this war, but we cannot." 

To this emphatic statement by Mr. Davis, Colonel Jaquess 
calmly and with dignity replied: "I think the bitterness you 
speak of, sir, does not really exist. We meet and talk here 
as friends; our soldiers meet and fraternize with each other, 
and I feel sure that if the Union were restored a more friendly 
feeling will arise between us than ever has existed. The war 
has made us know and respect each other better than before. 
This is the view of very many Southern men. I have had it 
from very many of them — your leading citizens." 

To this loving and persuasive statement by Colonel Jaquess 
Mr. Davis icily replied: "They are mistaken. They do not 
understand Southern sentiment. How can we feel anything 
but bitterness toward men who deny us our rights? If you 



THE JAQUESS-GILMORE MISSION 113 

enter my house and drive me out of it, am I not your natural 
enemy?" 

With that marvelous courage and trust in God which kept 
him always calm and serene, Colonel Jaquess, in reply to this 
contentious declaration of Mr. Davis, said: "You put the case 
too strongly, but we cannot fight forever ; the war must end at 
some time ; we must finally agree upon something ; can we not 
agree now and stop this frightful carnage?" 

This brief and manly statement by the Colonel seemed only 
to irritate the Confederate leader, who with more show of 
feeling said: "The North was mad and blind; it would not 
let us govern ourselves and so the war came, and now it must 
go on till the last man of this generation falls in his tracks, 
and his children seize his musket and fight our battle, unless 
you acknowledge our right to self-government. We are not 
fighting for slavery. We are fighting for independence and 
that, or extermination, we will have." To this Colonel 
Jaquess with tenderness replied: "When I have seen your 
young men dying on the battlefield, and your old men, women 
and children starving in their homes, I have felt that I could 
risk my life to save them." 

To this Mr. Davis answered: "I know your motives, Colo- 
nel Jaquess, and I honor you for them." Later in the con- 
versation Mr. Davis said: "At your door lies all the misery 
and crime of this war, and it is a fearful, fearful account." 

At this point the spirit of Elijah radiated from the counte- 
nance of the Colonel, who replied : "Not all of it, Mr. Davis ; 
I admit a fearful account, but it is not all at our door. The 
passions of both sides are aroused. Unarmed men are hanged, 
persons are shot down in cold blood by yourselves. Elements 
of barbarism are entering the war from both sides that should 
make us — you and me — as Christian men shudder to think of. 
In God's name let us stop it! Let us do something, concede 
something, to bring about peace. You cannot expect, with 
only four and a half millions, as Mr. Benjamin says you have, 
to hold out forever against twenty millions." 



114 LATEST LIGHT ON ABRAHAM LINCOLN 

The reader should not overlook, nor fail to appreciate the 
significance of the smile which appeared on Mr. Davis' face 
as he disclosed the close relationship existing between the 
Confederates and their northern aUies, when he asked: "Do 
you suppose there are twenty millions at the North determined 
to crush us? I do not so read the returns of your recent 
elections. To my mind they show that fully one-half of your 
people think we are right and would fight for us if they had 
the opportunity." 

Mr. Davis further said: "Slavery is not an element in the 
contest." 

"Then," it was replied, "if I understand you, the dispute 
with your government is now narrowed down to this, union 
or disunion?" 

"Yes," said Mr. Davis, "or, to put it in other words, in- 
dependence or subjugation." Later he said: "We will govern 
ourselves! We will do it, if we have to see every Southern 
plantation sacked and every Southern city in flames." 

When the interview closed Mr. Davis kindly said "Good- 
bye," and shook hands with Mr. Gilmore, expressing the hope 
of seeing him again in Richmond in happier times; but, as 
Mr. Gilmore tells us, "with the Colonel his parting was par- 
ticularly cordial. Taking his hand in both of his he said: 
'Colonel, I respect your character and your motives, and I 
wish you well — I wish you every good I can wish you con- 
sistently with the interests of the Confederacy.' " 

It will be observed that Mr. Davis, during this interview, 
made precisely the declaration which was expected, the decla- 
ration that nothing but Southern independence would be for 
a moment considered. This declaration was in accordance 
with what Mr. Lincoln and those associated with him fully 
believed was the purpose of the Confederate chieftain. And 
it was to afford him the opportunity to consider liberal terms 
of peace and to secure from him this declaration in case of his 
refusal to consider those terms, that Mr. Gilmore undertook 
and prosecuted this second mission. For the same reason 



THE JAQUESS-GILMORE MISSION 115 

Mr. Lincoln favored the mission and provided that it should 
be carried out. 

Colonel Jaquess, however, aimed at nothing less than se- 
curing immediate peace in the name of the Almighty. While 
regarding it as his only mission to demand a cessation of 
hostility in the name and by the authority of Jehovah, he was 
not confident of securing acceptance of the terms offered. 
He was, however, from first to last unquestioningly confident 
that God was in the undertaking, and whether its immediate 
results were or were not such as he sought to accomplish, he 
firmly believed that in the end it would lead to desirable 
results. 

It could not be expected that the purposes and aims of 
Gilmore and Jaquess would not be discovered by men as able 
and astute as Davis and Benjamin. The latter, after the 
departure of their two visitors, freely expressed his convic- 
tion to Davis that Gilmore and Jaquess should be kept in 
Richmond until after the Presidential election. He saw in 
Jaquess only transparent honesty and sincerity. He believed 
he was seriously seeking peace, but he was fully convinced 
that the frank statements of Davis would by Gilmore be 
widely distributed throughout the North, and would contribute 
very largely to the re-election of President Lincoln. But Mr. 
Davis, while sharing in the apprehensions of Benjamin, real- 
ized that to hold these peaceable citizens, who came to them 
in the name of God, asking only for peace and the restoration 
of the Union, would injure the Confederate cause in the North 
and in the South to a far greater extent than would their 
return to the Union lines. While these matters were being 
discussed by Davis and Benjamin, Mr. Gilmore and Colonel 
Jaquess arranged for their departure North early the follow- 
ing morning. But when the promised escort to the Union 
lines did not appear at the appointed time, Mr. Gilmore 
became nervously apprehensive that the delay boded ill for 
him and his companion. But no such thought seemed to enter 
the mind of Colonel Jaquess, respecting whose behavior Mr, 



ii6 LATEST LIGHT ON ABRAHAM LINCOLN 

Gilmore says: "All this while he sat, his spectacles on his 
nose, and his chair canted against the window sill, absorbed 
in reading the newspaper. Occasionally he would look up to 
comment on something he was reading, but not a movement 
of his face nor a glance of his eye, had betrayed that he was 
conscious of Judge Ould's delay, or of my extreme restless- 
ness. As I said, 'Ould (their escort) is more than three hours 
late, what does it mean?' he took off his spectacles and 
quietly rubbing the glasses with his handkerchief, replied: 
Tt looks badly, but — I ask no odds of them. We have tried 
to serve the country, that is enough. Let them hang us if 
they like. But if they do, if they ill-treat two men who come 
to them with the olive branch of peace, their rotten Confed- 
eracy won't hang together for a fortnight. The civilized 
world will pray for its destruction.' " 

At length, being shown through Libby prison, these two 
volunteer ambassadors were escorted to the Union lines, where 
Colonel Jaquess, by invitation, remained for several days a 
guest of General Grant. But Gilmore, without delay, returned 
to Washington, and arriving there at night, proceeded at once 
to the White House to report to President Lincoln. Fortu- 
nately, he found the President in consultation with Charles 
Sumner, the great Massachusetts senator, who then for the 
first time learned of this embassy of peace. Mr. Gilmore had 
carefully prepared a report, which he read to the President 
in the presence of Mr. Sumner, and it was immediately de- 
cided to publish a brief summary of the interview with Davis, 
including his declarations relative to the terms of peace. 

This, at Mr. Sumner's suggestion, was first to appear in 
the Boston Evening Transcript, and to be followed by a more 
extended account in the Atlantic Monthly. As Mr. Gilmore 
was about to withdraw from the conference at the White 
House, Mr. Lincoln, with great elation, said: "Jaquess was 
right. God was in it. This may be worth more to us than 
half a dozen battles. It is important that Davis' position 
should be known at once. Get the thing out as soon as you 



THE JAQUESS-GILMORE MISSION 117 

can, but don't forget to send me the proof of what you write 
for the Atlantic Monthly. Good-bye, God bless you." 

Peril More Appalling 

The perils which threatened the nation at the time Jaquess 
and Gilmore started on the second embassy early in July, 
1864, were greatly increased during the weeks of their 
absence in the South, by the false claims of the peace agitators 
who were opposing President Lincoln's re-election. And after 
the return of those volunteer envoys with the defiant decla- 
rations of Mr. Davis, and their publication, the helpful influ- 
ence of those disclosures among the masses of the people was 
not at first recognized by the leaders of the Union party. 

As the time approached for holding the Presidential elec- 
tion, Mr. Lincoln's realization of the nation's perils became 
more and more oppressive. Under a solemn sense of duty 
he remained continuously at his post, and when on the 15th 
of August, 1864, he was requested by John T. Mills to ward 
off a breakdown in his health by taking a few weeks' vaca- 
tion, he deliberately and with great solemnity replied: 

"I cannot fly from my thoughts — my solicitude for this 
great country follows me wherever I go, I do not think it 
is personal vanity or ambition, though I am not free from 
these infirmities, but I cannot but feel that the weal or woe 
of this great nation will be decided in November. There is 
no program offered by any wing of the democratic party 
but that must result in the permanent destruction of the 
Union." 

When reminded by Mr. Mills that General McClellan 
would undoubtedly be the democratic candidate for President 
and that he was "in favor of crushing out this rebellion by 
force," Mr. Lincoln made the following reply, which should 
never be forgotten by the American people: "Sir, the slightest 
knowledge of arithmetic will prove to any man that the rebel 
armies cannot be destroyed by democratic strategy. It would 
sacrifice all the white men of the North to do it. There are 



ii8 LATEST LIGHT ON ABRAHAM LINCOLN 

now in the service of the United States nearly one hundred 
and fifty thousand able-bodied colored men, most of them 
under arms, defending and acquiring Union territory. The 
democratic strategy demands that these forces be disbanded, 
and that the masters be conciliated by restoring them to 
slavery. The black men who are now assisting Union prisoners 
to escape are to be converted into our enemies, in the vain 
hope of gaining the good will of their masters. We shall 
have to fight two nations instead of one. 

**You cannot conciliate the South if you guarantee to them 
ultimate success; and the experience of the present war proves 
their success is inevitable if you fling the compulsory labor 
of millions of black men into their side of the scale. Will 
you give our enemies such military advantages as insure suc- 
cess, and then depend on coaxing, flattery and concession to 
get them back into the Union? Abandon all the posts now 
garrisoned by black men, take one hundred and fifty thousand 
men from our side and put them in the battlefield or corn- 
field against us, and we will be compelled to abandon the war 
in three weeks. "^ 

The entire influence of the Confederacy was back of the 
Niagara Falls Commission, the purpose of which was to secure 
at the Chicago convention the nomination of a candidate for 
President, and the adoption of a platform favorable to South- 
ern independence. That commission succeeded in securing 
the latter of these two results in the adoption of the resolution 
written by V^allandigham, which was wholly to their liking. 
Mr. Vallandigham had been, and was the leader of the extreme 
Confederate-favoring element of the North. So offensive had 
his utterances and conduct become that he was exiled from 
the country, but after a time returned and was permitted to 
remain. In the Chicago convention he was the recognized 
champion of the Confederate-favoring element. The Niagara 
Falls Commission, however, did not secure the nomination of 
the candidate of their choice; but they were fully aware that 
^ Complete Works of Abraham Lincoln, Vol. X., p. 189. 



THE JAQUESS-GILMORE MISSION 119 

if Mr. Lincoln could be defeated no President thus elected 
could possibly refrain from carrying out the program of peace, 
even though it required national dismemberment. 

To judge correctly the purposes of a political party we 
must not look to the platform or the declarations of its can- 
didates, but to the obvious animating sentiments of the people 
composing that party. The animating sentiments of the oppo- 
sition party in attendance at the Chicago convention of 1864 
was indicated by the tumultuous and prolonged applause which 
greeted the introduction and the adoption of the Vallandigham 
resolution which declared the war a failure and demanded a 
cessation of hostilities. 

In justice to General McClellan, who was the nominee of 
the Chicago convention, it should be stated that in his letter of 
acceptance he emphatically avowed his loyalty to the Union 
and his determination never to consent to its dissolution. 

But in his criticism of McClellan's' quasi repudiation of 
the platform on which he was a candidate for election, Val- 
landigham declared that in the Chicago convention the senti- 
ments expressed by General McClellan had little or no support, 
and that the resolution written by him and adopted by the 
convention, expressed not only the convictions and purposes 
of that convention, but those of the adherents of the party 
throughout the nation. In this statement Mr. Vallandigham 
was undoubtedly correct. It was my privilege to be an active 
participant in the political movements in the nation at that 
time. I was almost constantly upon the stump addressing 
great outdoor political rallies, and smaller but equally enthusi- 
astic meetings in halls, churches, and schoolhouses, and I was 
untiring in my attendance upon party conferences, caucuses 
and conventions. Therefore, I was thoroughly familiar with 
existing conditions and with all influences which at that time, 
by open and fair methods, or by cunning and stealth, were 
engaged in the activities of the political arena; and although 
military conditions, operations and prospects at that time were 
so favorable as to justify the hope for an early and satis- 



120 LATEST LIGHT ON ABRAHAM LINCOLN 

factory termination of the war, to those of us who, in the 
political field, were struggling for the re-election of President 
Lincoln as the only method of securing the preservation of 
the Union, it was the darkest period of all those stormy years ; 
for no possible military triumphs could avail to save the Union 
without a favorable verdict of the people at the polls in 
November. During that campaign the following circular was 
widely and plentifully distributed throughout Ohio: 

A PRAYER FOR PEACE 
On the Basis of the Integrity of the Union 

To the President of the LTnited States: 

We, the women of Ohio, the mothers, wives, daughters 
and sisters of the soldiers in the field, or who slumber in 
patriotic graves, petition to the President to grant us peace. 

We love the union of the states, but above all we love 
that sacred and holy union composed of our fathers, hus- 
bands, sons and brothers. Many of our homes are desolate — 
all are obscured in gloom, and our habiliments of woe are 
stained with fraternal, with conjugal and with filial blood. 
Oh, then, let our prayer be heard, and do not doom to death 
the remaining loved ones whose presence saves us from 
despair! With prayers for our country and peace, we trust- 
ingly subscribe our names.^ 

Other circulars of a similar character were, in like manner, 
distributed in other states, and their influence was inestimably 
harmful to the Union cause. Such appeals, whether in circu- 
lars, newspapers or in public addresses, would have possessed 
but little if any force without the claim which was persis^ 
tently presented that "peace could readily be secured without 
further effusion of blood," if the national Government would 
only consent to a restoration of the Union without any inter- 
ference with the institution of slavery. 

A Political History of Slavery, V^ol. II., p. 192. 



THE JAQUESS-GILMORE MISSION 121 

In its earlier stages the war was prosecuted by the national 
government for the sole purpose of preserving the Union, 
but it had come to be regarded as necessary to destroy slavery 
in order to save the Union. And the movement for the over- 
throw of slavery had made such progress that the government 
was irreversibly committed to the extermination of that in- 
stitution. It was upon that well-understood platform that 
President Lincoln was a candidate for re-election. 

There was no doubt as to the purpose of an overwhelming 
majority of the people in the loyal states never to consent 
to a dissolution of the Union, but there were many loyal 
people who were ready to give credence to the utterly false 
declaration of the opposition leaders that peace could be se- 
cured by negotiations without further bloodshed. This caused 
the peril of disunion to loom up as at no other period, and 
seriously to threaten the nation's life. A consideration of 
the conditions at that time in the loyal states will show how 
great and appalling that peril was. 

At the time of President Lincoln's first election in i860, 
the voting population of the North was quite evenly divided 
between those who supported and those who opposed him. A 
very large per cent of those who voted against him were 
intensely hostile to all antislavery sentiments and measures. 
They disliked the colored people and earnestly believed in 
slavery as an institution which kept that race in its proper 
place. All such were in hearty sympathy with the South 
before and during the rebellion. But a large per cent of 
those who opposed Mr. Lincoln's election in i860 were loyal 
to the Union, and when the flag was assailed they instantly 
sprang to the defense of the Government. With them all 
party ties disappeared, and with all loyal supporters of the 
Government they united in forming what was known as the 
"Union Party." Leading democrats like Douglas, Logan and 
many others of great prominence and influence rallied to the 
support of the administration and were followed by the loyal 
people of every party. From this great multitude of Union 



122 LATEST LIGHT ON ABRAHAM LINCOLN 

men, irrespective of party affiliations, the Union army was 
recruited, but those in the loyal states who in heart sym- 
pathized with the South refused to enlist and remained at 
home, as a part of the nation's electorate, and in the absence 
of the loyal voters who were in the army, they constituted 
a very dangerous element ; yet being in the minority they were 
unable at elections to aid the Confederate movement to any 
very considerable extent. 

Had the Presidential campaign of 1864 been conducted 
upon the single issue of union or disunion, the opposition 
would have had no show of success, but by claiming that the 
South was ripe for a restoration of the Union, without fur- 
ther war, this thoroughly disloyal element in the loyal states 
was enabled to win to the support of their efforts for the elec- 
tion of a peace-favoring candidate many loyal people whom 
they could induce to believe in their false claims respecting 
the possibility of peace by official negotiations. The work of 
winning loyal people to the support of this disloyal peace 
movement was prosecuted with such vigor and persistence that 
at midsummer, during the Presidential campaign, there ap- 
peared little hope of the re-election of President Lincoln. 

During that campaign Hon. Henry J. Raymond, formerly 
Lieutenant-Governor of New York, subsequently a distin- 
guished member of Congress and at that time and for many 
years the proprietor and very able and influential editor of the 
New York Times, was chairman of the national committee 
of the Union party which had nominated and was supporting 
President Lincoln for re-election. When that Presidential 
campaign was at its height Mr. Raymond addressed President 
Lincoln a lengthy and most discouraging letter, dated August 
22nd, 1864, in which among other similar statements he said: 

*'The tide is setting strongly against us. Hon. E. B. 
Washburne writes that 'were an election to be held now in 
Illinois we should be beaten.' Mr. Cameron writes that Penn- 
sylvania is against us. Governor Morton writes that nothing 
but the most strenuous efforts can carry Indiana. This state, 



THE JAQUESS-GILMORE MISSION 123 

New York, according to the best information I can get, would 
go fifty thousand against us tomorrow. And so of the rest. 

"In some way or other the suspicion is widely diffused 
that we can have peace with Union if we would. It is idle 
to reason with this belief — still more idle to denounce it. It 
can only be expelled by some authoritative act, at once bold 
enough to fix attention and distinct enough to defy incredulity 
and challenge respect. 

"Why would it not be wise, under these circumstances, 
to appoint a commission, in due form, to make distinct proffers 
of peace to Davis, as the head of the rebel armies, on the sole 
condition of acknowledging the supremacy of the Constitu- 
tion — all other questions to be settled in a convention of the 
people of all the states? 

"I cannot conceive of any answer which Davis could give 
to such a proposition which would not strengthen you and 
the Union cause everywhere. Even your radical friends could 
not fail to applaud it when they should see the practical 
strength it would bring to the common cause. 

"I beg you to excuse the earnestness with which I have 
pressed this matter upon your attention. It seems to me 
calculated to do good — and incapable of doing harm. It will 
turn the tide of public sentiment and avert impending evils 
of the gravest character. It will arouse and concentrate the 
loyalty of the country and unless I am greatly mistaken give 
us an easy and a fruitful victory. Permit me to add that if 
done at all I think this should be done at once — as your own 
spontaneous act. In advance of the Chicago convention it 
might render the action of that body of very little conse- 
quence."* 

Bearing the same date as Mr. Raymond's letter the fol- 
lowing was received by Hon. William H. Seward from Thur- 
low Weed of Albany, N. Y. : 

"When, ten days since, I told Mr. Lincoln that his re- 

8 Abraham Lincoln, A History, Vol. IX., p. 219. 



124 LATEST LIGHT ON ABRAHAM LINCOLN 

election was an impossibility, I also told him that the infor- 
mation would soon come to him through other channels. It 
has doubtless ere this reached him. At any rate nobody here 
doubts it, nor do I see anybody from other states who author- 
izes the slightest hope of success. Mr. Raymond, who has 
just left me, says that unless some prompt and bold step be 
now taken all is lost. The people are wild for peace. They 
are told that the President will only listen to terms of peace 
on condition (that) slavery be abandoned. . . .Mr. Ray- 
mond thinks commissioners should be immediately sent to 
Richmond offering to treat for peace on the basis of Union. 
That something should be done and promptly done to give the 
Administration a chance for its Hfe is certain."^ 

If President Lincoln had pursued the course here suggested 
by Mr. Raymond and approved by Mr. Weed, he would in 
so doing have given to the Confederate government just the 
recognition the leaders of the Rebellion most ardently desired, 
and would have caused like recognition promptly to be given 
the Confederacy by European nations. Only a few days earlier, 
as stated on a preceding page of this chapter, Mr. Chase dur- 
ing the conference at the White House with Mr. Gilmore 
suggested to the President a course of action which Mr. 
Lincoln immediately saw would result, if taken, in the recog- 
nition which he always had refused to give the Confederate 
government. What marvelous sagacity was required to avoid 
the fatal blunders which such great men were then urging upon 
him! 

On the day following the date of these two letters Mr. 
Lincoln carefully wrote a memorandum, which he sealed, giv- 
ing instruction that it should not be opened until after the 
Presidential election. Before sealing the memorandum he 
secured upon the reverse side of the paper the signatures of 
the members of his Cabinet without their knowledge of its 
contents. That memorandum is as follows:^** 

^ Abraham Lincoln, A History, Vol. IX., p. 250. 

1° Complete Works of Abraham Lincoln, Vol. X., p. 203. 



THE JAQUESS-GILMORE MISSION 125 

"Executive Mansion, August 23rd, 1864. 
"This morning, as for some days past, it seems exceed- 
ingly probable that this administration will not be re-elected. 
Then it will be my duty to so co-operate with the President- 
elect as to save the Union between the election and the inau- 
guration ; as he will have to secure his election on such ground 
that he cannot possibly save it afterward. 

"A. Lincoln." 

Why Mr. Lincoln, with his own hand, and without any 
person's knowledge, should have written this memorandum 
never has been and never can be explained. But that memo- 
randum constitutes a milestone on the way of governmental 
progress. For half a century and more it has touched the 
hearts of every truly loyal man and woman who has given 
it a sympathetic perusal. That at such a time his great heart, 
so true to God, and so faithful to every interest of humanity, 
should be pierced through and through with the pain that 
wrung from him that piteous wail of anguish, is cause for 
tears of tender sympathy. 

That memorandum, and the two letters from Raymond 
and Weed, which were probably received by the President 
the day he wrote it, faithfully disclose the condition of the 
country at the time as understood by the loyal people of the 
nation. 

The Peril Averted 

In accordance with Mr. Sumner's suggestion, which was 
approved by the President, Mr. Gilmore prepared a brief news 
item containing an account of the interview with Mr. Davis 
and his declaration that the Confederates were not fighting 
for slavery but for independence, and that they would never 
consent to a restoration of the Union. This news item was 
first published in the Boston Evening Transcript of July 22nd, 
1864, and was copied by the loyal newspapers throughout the 
nation. It at once arrested the attention of the nation, and 



126 LATEST LIGHT ON ABRAHAM LINCOLN 

prepared the way for the more extended history of the 
Jaquess-Gilmore embassy, and a full account of the interview 
with Davis, which was published in the Atlantic Monthly for 
September, 1864. The proofs of this magazine article were, 
at his request, furnished President Lincoln and carefully re- 
vised by him before its publication, and that article is now 
before me in the copy of the Atlantic Monthly in which it 
first appeared. 

Dr. Oliver Wendell Holmes, in a letter to Mr. Gilmore, 
which is in the library of the Johns Hopkins University, in 
Baltimore, states that "beyond question that article had a 
larger number of readers than any magazine article ever 
written." It was at once reproduced in its entirety by the 
London Times, Nczvs, and Telegraph, and was republished 
by the leading newspapers in all the loyal states, and was the 
theme of strong editorials, political speeches and private con- 
versations among the people. It was more seriously consid- 
ered and talked about than any other matter during the Presi- 
dential campaign. 

Even the great victories of Sherman and Sheridan did not 
arouse and hold public attention as did the declarations of 
Davis which appeared in that magazine article. Those decla- 
rations of the Confederate leader cleared the political atmos- 
phere by showing that there was not the slightest foundation 
in truth for the claim of the opposition peace party that the 
South would welcome peace upon the terms of the restoration 
of the Union. 

The peace movement had attained tremendous strength 
when those declarations of Davis were made public. It had 
extended throughout all the loyal states and was rapidly 
advancing to greater portions. It had become so powerful 
that, as before stated, the leaders of the Union party had lost 
all hope of President Lincoln's re-election, and the President 
himself on the 23rd day of August, 1864, with a sad heart, 
had written and sealed his now historical memorandum ex- 
pressing the conviction that he would not be re-elected. 



THE JAQUESS-GILMORE MISSION 127 

There was a measure of plausibility in the claim that 
the victories at Vicksburg and vicinity, and at Gettysburg, 
the constant advance of Grant upon Richmond, Sherman's 
triumphant march to the sea, and the series of Union vic- 
tories under Sheridan, had caused the Confederate leaders to 
recognize the certainty of their early overthrow and to be 
willing to consider overtures for peace. Although we knew 
those claims were without warrant or justification, until the 
Davis disunion declarations were published, we could not 
prove them false to the satisfaction of those who were join- 
ing the peace movement in the hope that those claims were 
true. Many times before those declarations were published 
my pleas at public meetings for the re-election of President 
Lincoln were interrupted by those claims being thrust for- 
ward and insisted upon by opposition leaders. And like events 
were constantly occurring throughout the loyal states to the 
unavoidable advantage of the peace party. 

I cannot forget the pathetic and appalling scenes which I 
witnessed during that Presidential campaign, previous to the 
publication of the Davis declarations that he would never 
consent to peace without disunion. It was heartrending to see 
staunch, loyal unionists joining the Confederate-favoring 
peace movement under the delusion that the war had accom- 
plished the purposes for which it had been conducted, and 
that the Confederate leaders were ready and eager to return 
to their allegiance to the Government. The toll of the war 
had been so great; so many had fallen in battle or died of 
wounds, sickness and hardships; so unspeakable had been the 
sufferings and sacrifices throughout the loyal states that many 
true Union men were readily caught in the snare so skillfully 
constructed by the Confederate leaders and manipulated by 
their northern allies, and in large and increasing numbers were 
joining in a movement designed and calculated to accomplish 
the dismemberment of the nation. 

It was utterly impossible to arrest and turn this movement 
back, or retard the desertion of sincere and devoted adherents 



128 LATEST LIGHT ON ABRAHAM LINCOLN 

of the Union cause from the ranks of the supporters of Presi- 
dent Lincoki, and their enHstment under the opposition ban- 
ner. It was utterly beside the mark to appeal to the spirit 
of patriotism, inasmuch as they were sincerely loyal to their 
country, and were willing to make any needed sacrifices in its 
defense. Their mistake was they had been induced to believe 
that the further prosecution of the war was not necessary to 
the preservation of the nation. 

Like a stampeding herd, those deserters were blindly rush- 
ing on their way, deaf to reason and remonstrance. While 
the brave soldiers in the field were winning glorious victories 
and rapidly marching on to early and complete triumph, many 
of their relatives and friends in the loyal states were joining 
in a movement which if successful would have meant the 
surrender of all the fruits of their years of sacrifice and suf- 
fering. During all the months of that memorable campaign 
I was in the midst of the contending movements, aiding in 
the struggle to stay the tide of desertion from the Union party, 
and to save the nation by the re-election of President Lin- 
coln ; and I cannot forget the determination with which people 
of unquestionable loyalty at that time aided in carrying out 
the program prepared by the Confederate leaders, under the 
mad delusion that those leaders were eager for peace and the 
restoration of the Union. I cannot forget — it lingers with 
me still like the memory of a frightful dream — the darkness 
which at that time hung like a storm-cloud over the nation 
and the cause of human freedom. 

And I hope ever to remember that day, when like a great 
light from heaven the disclosures of the Jaquess-Gilmore 
embassy burst upon the world first in the brief news item in 
the Boston Transcript and afterwards in the Gilmore maga- 
zine article, revealing the appalling disaster toward which we 
were rapidly moving. 

The scenes which followed that exposure of the fixed 
determination of the Confederate leaders to destroy the nation, 
and the utter untruth fulnesss of the claims of their emissaries 



THE JAOUESS-GILMORE MISSION 129 

in the North, Hnger in the memory of those who witnessed 
them like the pleasing recollections of a loved one's recovery 
from a seemingly fatal illness. The column of loyal people 
moving toward the camp of the opposition suddenly halted 
and began to return to the Union camp, where the starry em- 
blem of an undivided nation floated in undimmed splendor 
and glory. That return in its early stages was somewhat 
hesitating, for the peace delusion had taken fast hold upon 
its victims, and it required time and effort to dispel the en- 
chantment of a hoped-for bloodless peace; but the light of 
truth had begun to shine and each day witnessed an increase 
in the public realization of the appalling disaster which for 
months we had been steadily approaching, and it became more 
and more evident that it could be avoided only by the re- 
election of President Lincoln; and as that conviction grew 
there was an increase in the number returning to the Union 
party, and in the haste and zest with w^hich they resumed their 
allegiance to the President and his governmental policies. 
With glad and grateful heart I now recall the occasions when 
the Confederate-favoring peace delusion was thrust into 
meetings I was addressing and was speedily and easily proved 
to be false by a statement of Jefferson Davis' declarations to 
Jaquess and Gilmore. That gun never missed fire and no 
peace party champion at whom it was aimed ever failed to 
fall when it was discharged. Every speaker in the campaign 
for the re-election of President Lincoln, who was at all fit 
for that work, was familiar with the Gilmore article and 
made such effective use of the declarations of Davis as to 
cause the people to realize the unyielding determination of the 
Confederate leaders never to consent to peace which did not 
include Southern independence. And thus was broken the 
power of the false claims of the peace party and thus were 
the deserters from the Union party brought back to their 
allegiance to the Government in such numbers as to save the 
nation by the re-election of Abraham Lincoln. 

Horace Greeley was probably better informed than was 



130 LATEST LIGHT ON ABRAHAM LINCOLN 

any other man in the Union respecting political conditions and 
movements, and that great journalist stated in the Tribune 
that the scheme to secure Southern independence by the defeat 
of President Lincoln and the election of an opposition Presi- 
dent "was spoiled by Jefferson Davis' peremptory declaration 
to Jaquess and Gilmore that he would consent to no peace 
that did not recognize the Southern Confederacy as henceforth 
independent. We believe," said Mr. Greeley, "that the visit 
of Jaquess and Gilmore to Richmond saved the vote of this 
(New York) state to Lincoln, though Sherman's capture of 
Atlanta, and Sheridan's victories in the Valley doubtless co- 
operated with the semi-treasonable follies of the Chicago 
Convention and Platform, to render the general triumph of 
Lincoln more complete and overwhelming." 

Mr. Greeley's statement in the Tribune that the vote of 
the state of New York was saved to Lincoln by the Jaquess- 
Gilmore Mission may to some seem extravagant, but a con- 
sideration of the known facts in the case cannot fail to con- 
vince the candid reader that it was unquestionably correct. 

The aggregate popular vote in the state of New York for 
both Lincoln and McClellan in the election of 1864 was 
730,712, of which President Lincoln received a majority of 
only 6,740, which is less than one per cent of the total 
vote cast for both candidates. It would, therefore, have 
required the change of only 3,371 votes from Lincoln to 
McClellan, or less than one-half of one per cent of the entire 
vote cast, to have carried the state, with its thirty-three 
electoral votes, for McClellan. In other words, if in the state 
of New York, at that election, one voter in two hundred 
had been by those Davis declarations which appeared in the 
Gilmore magazine article induced to vote for Lincoln instead 
of McClellan it saved the state to President Lincoln. 

And no one at all familiar with conditions as they existed 
at that time can fail to believe that the Gilmore article exerted 
an influence many times greater than was required to win 
President Lincoln one voter in two hundred of those who by 



THE JAQUESS-GILMORE MISSION 131 

the deluding peace pretensions had become inclined to the sup- 
port of McClellan. 

The great victories under Sherman and Sheridan kindled 
the fire of enthusiasm in the prosecution of the war, but the 
Gihnorc article told the people hozv to vote. Those victories 
were attended by great loss of life and property, and the 
people had come to hope that peace might be obtained without 
having to pay for it such a terrible price. They wer; pained 
at the thought of the great losses sustained by the enemy in 
those battles, and their hearts were crushed by the loss of 
their own loved ones in winning those victories. For these 
reasons the magnificent victories in the field, while very help- 
ful to the Union cause, in the Presidential campaign did not 
so increase the vote for Mr. Lincoln as to have caused his 
re-election without the Gilmore disclosures. While the vic- 
tories in the field strengthened and stimulated the hope of the 
people that the war could soon be brought to a successful 
issue by military operations, the declarations of Mr. Davis 
convinced the people that peace could be secured by no other 
method. 

It has been customary to regard President Lincoln's 
triumph at the polls as overwhelming. Of the electoral votes 
cast Mr. Lincoln received 212, while only 21 were cast for 
his opponent. I was present in the joint session of the 
two houses when those electoral votes were counted, and 
the victory at that time seemed very great. But, even at 
this late period, it is startling to consider by what a small 
margin that victory was won. To show how very narrow 
was our escape at that election, and to indicate what must 
have been achieved by the disclosures of the Jaquess-Gilmore 
interview with Jefferson Davis, and their nation-wide pub- 
licity, the following statistics are commended to the reader's 
careful consideration: 



132 LATEST LIGHT ON ABRAHAM LINCOLN 

Popular Vote of Six States in 
1864 

States Lincoln McClellan Majority Electors 

New Hampshire. . . 38,661 33.724 4.937 5 

Connecticut 44.693 42,288 2,405 6 

New York 368,726 361,986 6,740 33 

Pennsylvania 323,101 288,657 34.444 26 

Indiana 150,422 130.233 20,189 13 

Illinois 189,487 158,349 31.138 16 

Total 99 

A glance at the third column of the above figures shows 
how very small were President Lincoln's popular majorities 
in the six states above mentioned. An examination of those 
majorities shows ns that a change from Lincoln to McClellan 
of 2,500 votes in New Hampshire, 1,250 in Connecticut, 
3,371 in New York, 17,250 in Pennsylvania, 10,100 in In- 
diana, and 15,600 in Illinois would have carried all those 
states with their 99 electoral votes for McClellan. And with 
the 21 votes he did secure it would have given him 120 elec- 
toral votes, while only 113 would have been cast for President 
Lincoln. 

There are times when contending forces are so nearly 
equal that a very small accession of power on either side will 
win a victory. 

Victor Hugo tells us that the Battle of Waterloo was 
decided by a shepherd boy shaking his head in answer to a 
question by Napoleon. 

So nearly equal were the contending forces in our Presi- 
dential campaign of 1880 that three words, "Rum, Romanism, 
and Rebellion," defeated James G. Blaine, and made Grover 
Cleveland President of the United States. 



THE JAQUESS-GILMORE MISSION 133 

And in 1864 conditions were such in the loyal states of 
the Union as to cause the disclosures of the Jaquess-Gilmore 
interview with Davis to exercise a deciding influence in the 
Presidential campaign then in progress, and to rescue the 
nation from the calamity of the defeat of President Lincoln, 
which would surely have been accomplished but for the influ- 
ence of this divinely ordered and divinely prospered embassy 
of peace. 

To achieve that result those two brave and consecrated 
Christian men voluntarily entered upon and courageously and 
wisely prosecuted their very dangerous mission, with no other 
aid or encouragement from the Government than permission 
to risk all in an effort so seemingly unpromising and full of 
peril. 

Confederate Testimony 

When Mr. Gilmore's article appeared in the Atlantic 
Monthly it immediately attracted the attention of the world 
and exerted a tremendous influence upon the attitude of Euro- 
pean powers to the Confederacy. This fact caused Mr. Ben- 
jamin to send to Mr. Mason, and to the other diplomatic 
agents of the Confederacy in Europe, a letter in which he gives 
his version of the Jaquess-Gilmore interview with Mr. Davis 
and himself. 

Mr. Benjamin's statement of the facts in the case are in 
agreement with the statements in the Gilmore article save 
only that he states that Gilmore and Jaquess claimed to be 
acting under the authority of President Lincoln. This claim, 
however, is contradicted by the letter of the envoys request- 
ing an interview with Mr. Davis. Mr. Benjamin says: 

"The President (Jefferson Davis) came to my office at 9 
o'clock in the evening, and Colonel Ould came a few moments 
later with Messrs. Jaquess 'and Gilmore. The President said 
to them that he had heard, from me, that they came as mes- 
sengers of peace from Mr. Lincoln; that as such they were 
welcome ; that the Confederacy had never concealed its desire 



134 LATEST LIGHT ON ABRAHAM LINCOLN 

for peace, and that he was ready to hear whatever they had 
to offer on that subject. . . . The President answered that 
as these proposals had been prefaced by the remark that the 
people of the North were a majority, and that a majority 
ought to govern, the offer was, in effect, a proposal that the 
Confederate States should surrender at discretion, admit that 
they had been wrong from the beginning of the contest, sub- 
mit to the mercy of their enemies, and avow themselves-to be 
in need of pardon for crimes ; that extermination was prefer- 
able to such dishonor. . . . That the separation of the states 
was an accomplished fact ; that he had no authority to receive 
proposals for negotiations except by virtue of his office as 
President of an independent Confederacy, and on this basis 
alone must proposals be made to him."" 

Jefferson Davis' version in his "Rise and Fall of the Con- 
federate Government," Vol. II., p. 6io, corroborates both Mr. 
Gilmore and Mr. Benjamin as to the terms discussed." 

Errors Corrected 

Very remarkable indeed was the vigilance with which 
President Lincoln guarded and kept all knowledge of this 
movement within the narrowest possible limits. This rigidly 
maintained secrecy, while necessary to its success, was pro- 
ductive of one very undesirable result in that the President's 
private secretaries, because of their lack of knowledge of the 
embassy and of President Lincoln's interest and part in it, 
were unable to write its history with the accuracy and faith- 
fulness that characterizes the monumental record of war-time 
events of which they had personal knowledge. 

Those very worthy gentlemen in their great work, "Abra- 
ham Lincoln, A History," in referring to Colonel Jaquess, say: 
"With some force of character and practical talent, his piety 

11 Benjamin to Mason, August 25th, 1864, Richmond Daily Dispatch, 
August 26th, 1864. 

12 Nicolay and Hay, Abraham Lincoln, A History, Vol. IX., pp. 
211-212. 



THE JAOUESS-GILMORE MISSION 135 

and religious enthusiasm touched that point of development 
which causes men to be classed as fanatics or prophets as 
success or failure waits on the unusual efforts to which they 
sometimes dedicate themselves." 

This classes Colonel Jaquess as a prophet, seeing that 
his "unusual efforts" were marvelously successful, but as I 
have shown, and as is admitted in a statement by these same 
authors in their "History," and copied on a later page of this 
chapter, such a designation of Colonel Jaquess, though not 
intended by them, does not seriously conflict with the follow- 
ing characterization of the Colonel by General Rosecrans: 
"He is a hero — John Brown and Chevalier Bayard rolled into 
one, and polished up with common sense and a knowledge of 
Greek, Latin and the Mathematics."" 

1 The same "History" further affirms: "Instead of trusting 
to Church influence he (Colonel Jaquess) at once addressed 
himself to the ordinary military channels for communication 
with the South." Of course he did. Colonel Jaquess never 
intimated that he had any thought of "trusting to church 
influence" to enable him to proceed on his journey. When 
he first asked for permission to engage in this work he said: 
"God has laid the duty upon me," but like the "remarkably 
level-headed man" Mr. Lincoln declared him to be, and like 
the true soldier he was, he said in the same letter: "If He 
puts it into the hearts of my superiors to allow me to do so 
I shall be thankful." Colonel Jaquess was an officer in the 
Army, and never for a moment had he lost sight of the fact 
that he was subject to military orders. As Ezra and Nehemiah 
asked permission of the king to obey the call of God to go to 
Jerusalem to restore the temple and the walls of the city, 
so Colonel Jaquess applied "to the ordinary military channels" 
as the only method by which he had any right to proceed with 
the work to which he was well assured that he had been 
divinely called. 

In referring to Colonel Jaquess' letter to President Lin- 

^3 Down in Tennessee, p. 240. 



136 LATEST LIGHT ON ABRAHAM LINCOLN 

coin from Baltimore, the "History" says: "But Mr. Lincoln 
did not need any further report from Colonel Jaquess. To 
his quick eye this brief letter told all the writer intended to 
communicate, and much more which his blinded enthusiasm 
could not comprehend. . . . The President could not make 
himself a party to the well meant but dangerous petty intrigue. 
Colonel Jaquess was left strictly to his own course, and after 
waiting at Baltimore till his patience was exhausted, he re- 
turned to his regiment in the West to do better service as a 
soldier than as a diplomat."^* 

These very uncomplimentary and disparaging references 
to Colonel Jaquess and his return to his regiment should be 
read in connection with the statement that Colonel Jaquess, 
at that time, reached his regiment just in time for the bloodiest 
battle of the war — the Battle of Chattanooga, In which he per- 
formed as heroic and signal service as marked the record of 
any leader of a thousand men, in any battle of the war. 

The intimation in the "History" that the President's 
failure to answer Colonel Jaquess' letter from Baltimore was 
due to his lack of interest in the movement and his wish not 
to hear further from the Colonel relative to that matter, is 
answered by the statement that when on the ist of April, 
1864, Mr. Lincoln was asked why he did not answer Colonel 
Jaquess' letter sent him from Baltimore, he promptly and with 
manifest surprise said: "I never received his letter." This 
fully explains why Colonel Jaquess did not receive a reply 
to the letter sent the President after his return from his first 
mission. That letter, as will be seen, was withheld from the 
President by his secretary, who, at that time, was in charge 
of his mail. It was natural and prudent, as I have already 
stated, for that secretary, knowing nothing of the Jaquess 
matter, to regard this letter as one which should not be given 
to the President; but the facts as here set forth explain the 
matter fully and show Mr. Lincoln's great Interest In the 
mission and the difficulties which he encountered in giving it 
1* Abraham Lincoln, A History, Vol. IX., pp. 204-205. 



THE JAQUESS-GILMORE MISSION 137 

encouragement and aid without giving embarrassing recog- 
nition of the Confederacy. 

When President Lincoln read Colonel Jaquess' letter to 
Mr. Gilmore, in which he referred to his letter sent the Presi- 
dent frorn Baltimore, Mr. Lincoln very earnestly said: "He 
has got something worth hearing. What a pity it is that they 
did not give me that letter." 

Concerning Colonel Jaquess' proposition said "History" 
says: "President Lincoln saw clearly enough the futility of all 
such projected negotiations." But President Lincoln, as before 
stated, when this matter was first considered by him, declared 
that the proposition was "the first gleam" of hope he had 
obtained, and "that the higher powers were about to take a 
hand in this business and bring about a settlement." And as 
shown by his attitude toward this enterprise from the first, 
it elicited and held his interest and secured from him all the 
encouragement and assistance he could wisely give to it. 

That it was understood by those who were associated with 
Mr. Lincoln in this enterprise that the President gave it his 
approval is shown by the following statement of General 
Garfield in a letter dated June 17th, 1863: "Colonel Jaquess 
has gone on his mission. The President approved it, though, 
of course, he did not make it an official matter." 

In the "History," the plan which Jaquess and Gilmore 
submitted to Jefferson Davis is spoken of as "the plan of ad- 
justment which their imagination had devised and which was 
as visionary as might be expected from the joint effort of a 
preacher and a novelist. . . . Mr. Lincoln had not thought 
of nor hinted at any such scheme to Mr. Gilmore, and he 
would not and could not have accepted it even if it had been 
agreed to or offered by the rebels. "^^ 

Fully to correct this serious error it is only necessary to 

remember that on the preceding pages of this chapter it is 

shown that the plan thus characterized by the authors of the 

"History" was carefully prepared by President Lincoln him- 

15 Abraham Lincoln, A History, Vol. IX., p. 209. 



138 LATEST LIGHT ON ABRAHAM LINCOLN 

self at a conference held by him with Hon. Salmon P. Chase 
and that it had the approval of that distinguished statesman. 
"Visionary" indeed must have been the plan thus prepared 
and approved ! The report of the interview with Davis, which 
in the above quoted paragraph is spoken of so disparagingly, 
was published at the suggestion of the President and Senator 
Charles Sumner, who was with Mr. Lincoln at the White 
House when that report was presented by Mr. Gilmore. And 
at Mr. Lincoln's request the proof pages of that report were 
submitted to him for revision before publication. 

"History" speaks slightingly of Mr. Gilmore as a "novel- 
ist." True, Mr. Gilmore wrote some very attractive and in- 
structive books of fiction, but he was none the less a great 
statesman. So did John Hay; but John Hay was none the 
less a very efficient private secretary for President Lincoln, 
and became a great historian and one of the ablest and most 
effective diplomats in the history of the nation. 

It should be remembered that when on the 6th day of July, 
1864, Mr. Lincoln decided to permit the embassy to go to 
Richmond to seek to "draw Davis' fire," he realized that it 
would require great ability and adaptability, together with 
wide political experience, to accomplish that result. He 
therefore insisted that Mr. Gilmore should be the man to 
whom that difficult work should be entrusted. This ought 
to be a sufficient testimonial to Mr. Gilmore's measurements 
and to his high standing in the President's estimation. 

On the 25th of July, 1864, only a few days after the 
return of Jaquess and Gilmore, just after the declarations of 
Davis had been given nation-wide publicity. President Lin- 
coln in a letter to Abram Wakeman, Postmaster of the city 
of New York, referred to the Confederate Commissioners at 
Niagara Falls as follows: "Who could have given them this 
confidential employment but he who only a week since declared 
to Jaquess and Gilmore that he had no terms of peace but the 
independence of the South — the dissolution of the Union."^' 
i« Complete Works of Abraham Lincoln, Vol. X., p. 171. 



THE JAQUESS-GILMORE MISSION 139 

This reference by Mr. Lincoln to the Davis declarations 
indicates his full confidence in the disclosures made in Gil- 
more's report of the interview with the Confederate chieftain. 

Furthermore, the authors of "History," in the chapter of 
that work devoted to the Jaquess-Gilmore mission in showing 
Mr. Lincoln's views of the Niagara Falls commission, quoted 
the foregoing passage from his letter to Abram Wakeman. 
How those authors, knowing President Lincoln's confidence in 
the disclosures of that mission, could have written as they 
did respecting this matter must forever remain a mystery. 

*'History" says: "The President would not even give the 
Colonel a personal interview." It was, as the reader under- 
stands, only to avoid publicity that Mr. Lincoln refused to 
have Colonel Jaquess call at the White House. But when he 
sent these two volunteer envoys out upon their dangerous trip 
he said to Mr. Gilmore: "Tell Colonel Jaquess that I omit his 
name from the pass on account of the talk about his previous 
trip; and I wish you would explain to him my refusal to see 
him. I want him to feel kindly to me." 

A Conclusive Confession 

At the close of the chapter devoted to the Jaquess-Gilmore 
mission, "History" says: "On the whole this volunteer embassy 
was of service to the Union. In the pending Presidential 
campaign the mouths of the peace factionists were to a great 
extent stopped by the renewed declaration of the chief rebel 
that he would fight ior separation to the bitter end."" 

And that is precisely the purpose for which Mr. Gilmore 
joined this embassy, and it was to accomplish that result that 
President Lincoln gave these envoys the permission and as- 
sistance which enabled them to pass the army lines and visit 
Richmond. This was fully stated and understood at the time 
Mr. Lincoln, on July 6th, 1864, consented to the mission and 
insisted that Gilmore and not Jaquess was the one to get 

1^ Abraham Lincoln, A History, Vol. IX., p. 213. 



140 LATEST LIGHT ON ABRAHAM LINCOLN 

from Davis the declarations that would stop the mouths of 
those who were claiming that the Confederates were willing 
to accept peace without disunion. 

When that declaration was secured by this mission all 
that was hoped for by President Lincoln and Mr. Gilmore was 
accomplished. The admission in "History" that "on the whole 
this volunteer embassy was of service to the Union," by 
silencing the clamors of the advocates of a Confederate- 
favoring peace is unwittingly a confession that the mission 
was a success and is a testimonial to the wisdom and courage 
of the men who conducted it. 

I regret the necessity of correcting as I have the unfor- 
tunate errors which from lack of full information were pub- 
lished in the inestimable Nicolay and Hay biography of 
Abraham Lincoln, but I have endeavored to do so in a spirit 
and manner consistent with the high esteem I cherish for that 
great work and for its able and worthy authors. 

All the facts stated in this history of the Jaquess-Gilmore 
Mission are matters of authentic record and prove conclu- 
sively that under God the disclosures of that Mission respect- 
ing the purposes of the Confederate leaders accomplished the 
re-election of President Lincoln and the preservation of the 
Federal Union. And to the two God-fearing men — Colonel 
James F. Jaquess and James R. Gilmore — who with such 
manifest wisdom and skill conducted that mission to its suc- 
cessful issue, the nation owes a debt of gratitude which can 
only be fittingly paid by a true appreciation of their motives, 
efforts and achievements. 

No event in our nation's history more clearly shows the 
special favor of God, and Abraham Lincoln's transcendent 
ability and religious faith than does this wonderful embassy 
of peace. 



IV 

LINCOLN AND TEMPERANCE 

IN Mr, Lincoln's thought slavery and intemperance were 
closely associated. He frequently referred to these two 
great evils, and his attitude to intemperance, like his 
attitude to slavery, is worthy of universal imitation. As the 
hand that wrote the Emancipation Proclamation never held 
title to a slave, so the lips that pleaded eloquently for total 
^ abstinence were never polluted by any alcoholic beverage. No 
feature of Mr. Lincoln's Hfe is more wonderful than 

His Lifelong Abstinence 

from the use of strong drink. During the early years of his 
life habitual liquor-drinking was almost universal on the 
frontier where he lived. Conditions as they existed are thus 
described by him in his address at Springfield, Illinois, under 
the auspices of the Washingtonian Society, February 22nd, 
1842: "When all such of us, as have now reached the years 
of maturity, first opened our eyes upon the stage of existence, 
we found intoxicating liquor, recognized by everybody, used 
by everybody, and repudiated by nobody. It commonly en- 
tered into the first draught of the infant, and the last draught 
of the dying man. From the sideboard of the parson, down 
to the ragged pocket of the houseless loafer, it was con- 
stantly found. Physicians prescribed it in this, that, and the 
other disease. Government provided it for its soldiers and 
sailors; and to have a rolling or raising, a husking or hoe- 
down anywhere without it was positively insufferable. 

"So, too, it was everywhere a respectable article of manu- 
facture and of merchandise. The making of it was regarded 

I4J 



142 LATEST LIGHT ON ABRAHAM LINCOLN 

as an honorable livelihood ; and he who could make most was 
the most enterprising and respectable. Large and small man- 
ufactories of it were everywhere created, in which all the 
earthly goods of their owners were invested. Wagons drew 
it from town to town — boats bore it from clime to clime, and 
the winds wafted it from nation to nation; and merchants 
bought and sold it, by wholesale and by retail, with precisely 
the same feelings, on the part of seller, buyer, and bystander, 
as are felt at the selling and buying of flour, beef, bacon, or 
any other of the real necessaries of life. Universal public 
opinion not only tolerated, but recognized and adopted its use. 

"It is true, that even then, it was known and acknowledged 
that many were greatly injured by it; but none seemed to think 
that the injury arose from the use of a bad thing, but from 
the abuse of a very good thing. The victims to it were pitied, 
and compassionated, just as now are, heirs of consumption, 
and other hereditary diseases. Their failing was treated as a 
misfortune, and not as a crime, or even as a disgrace." 

Not only was strict sobriety almost unknown among those 
early pioneers with whom Mr. Lincoln's lot was cast, but to 
abstain from the use of liquor was to attract attention and 
invite severe criticism, if not ridicule. Sometimes the ab- 
stainer was subjected to insults and violence; and such indig- 
nities were not confined to the frontier sections. Rev. A. 
Bristol, a man of exceptional worth and one of the most 
beloved ministers upon the Pacific Coast, in "The Pioneer 
Preacher," gives a graphic account of the violence with which 
he was treated by his fellow students in Oberlin College 
because of his total abstinence convictions and habits. And 
there was little effort to create a better state of public senti- 
ment concerning the use of intoxicants. Many ministers and 
leading church people were habitual drinkers, and the attitude 
of the church towards intemperance was not such as to create 
a vigorous protest against the prevailing drinking customs. 

Yet, even in childhood, Abraham Lincoln espoused the 
cause of total abstinence, and never deviated a hair's breadth 



LINCOLN AND TEMPERANCE 143 

from its principles. He not only refused to drink when invited 
to do so, but, when only a small boy, he delivered temperance 
lectures to his playmates which gave promise of his later 
achievements as a public speaker. That he continued ever 
faithful to the cause of total abstinence is settled beyond 
all honest doubt by his declarations to Leonard Swett that 
he "never drank nor tasted a drop of alcoholic liquor of any 
kind."' 

And it is very significant that this declaration of Mr. 
Lincoln made to one of his personal friends during his 
Presidency and given to the world by Mr. Swett in a care- 
fully written statement, has never been weakened by any 
counter testimony. 

In 1847, while a member of Congress, he was remonstrated 
with by a fellow member for declining to partake of some rare 
wines which had been provided by their host, when he replied 
that he meant no disrespect, but he had made a solemn promise 
to his mother only a few days before her death that he would 
never use as a beverage anything intoxicating, and 'T con- 
sider that pledge," said he, "as binding today as it was the 
day I gave it." 

When the specious argument was used that conditions in 
his mature manhood and in a home of refinement were unlike 
those under which he made that promise in childhood, Mr. 
Lincoln stated: "But a promise is a promise forever and when 
made to a mother it is doubly binding." It required a great 
degree of courage, and an unyielding purpose, for an ambitious 
young member of Congress thus to disregard the requirements 
of fashionable society at Washington, and be true to his total 
abstinence convictions and covenants. 

Mr. Murat Halstead, an able and distinguished journalist, 
states that when on September 17th, 1859, Mr. Lincoln spoke 
in Cincinnati, Ohio, a number of young republicans called 
upon him at his rooms in the Burnett House, and during the 
interview one of their number ordered cigars and liquor for 
1 Reminiscences of Abraham Lincoln, p. 463. 



144 LATEST LIGHT ON ABRAHAM LINCOLN 

the company, which, by oversight, were charged to Mr. Lin- 
coln's account with the hotel. "This displeased him very 
much," and in letters which Mr. Halstead saw and character- 
izes as "well written and extremely to the point," Mr. Lin- 
coln expressed to the young gentlemen his disapproval of what 
had been done. He knew nothing of the affair until he saw 
the item in his hotel bill and he felt he could not permit the 
matter to pass unnoticed, nor allow himself to be held re- 
sponsible for something which he had not authorized and 
of which he strongly disapproved.^ 

The Supreme Test 

of Mr. Lincoln's loyalty to his total abstinence principles 
occurred at the time he received the notification of nomination 
as a candidate for the Presidency in i860. As it was an 
occasion of unusual importance, Mr. Lincoln's friends at 
Springfield kindly offered to provide liquors for what they 
regarded as fitting hospitality to the distinguished members 
of the notification committee. When Mr. Lincoln learned of 
their purpose, he expressed his appreciation of their well- 
meant offer, and said: "I have never been in the habit of 
entertaining my friends in that way and I cannot permit my 
friends to do for me what I will not myself do. I shall pro- 
vide cold water — nothing else." Mr. Lincoln's Springfield 
friends feared that his proposed strict adherence to total 
abstinence would make an unfavorable impression upon his 
distinguished visitors, yet no one attempted to dissuade him 
from his declared purpose; and when the notification cere- 
monies were concluded he extended the hospitalities of his 
home to all present by inviting them to partake of what he 
designated as "pure Adam's ale, the most healthy beverage 
God has given to men and the only beverage I have ever 
used or allowed my family to use." This charming little 
speech made a favorable impression upon his visitors, who 
seemed to enjoy the disclosure to them of their candidate's 
2 Tributes from Lincoln's Associates, p. 58. 



LINCOLN AND TEMPERANCE 145 

sobriety and strong moral stamina. The incident at once 
attracted nation-wide attention, but was soon forgotten in 
the interest and excitement of the great campaign and the 
events that followed. 

The press of the nation made very little comment on the 
affair and the interest it at first awakened disappeared so 
speedily that none of Mr. Lincoln's early biographers mention 
the occurrence. Mr. Lincoln, however, gave his personal tes- 
timonial to its correctness, but expressed his wish that the 
incident be not given large publicity lest it should divert 
public attention from the far greater questions then before 
the nation. But the event was very significant, as it not 
only bore witness to Mr. Lincoln's habitual abstinence from 
the use of alcoholic beverages, but also furnished a landmark 
along the path of progress toward temperance reform. 

On September 29th, 1863, in response to an address from 
the Sons of Temperance, President Lincoln said: *Tf I were 
better known than I am, you would not need to be told that 
in the advocacy of the cause of temperance you have a friend 
and sympathizer in me. When I was a young man — long 
ago — before the Sons of Temperance as an organization had 
an existence, I, in a humble way, made temperance speeches, 
and I think I may say that to this day I have never, by my 
example, belied what I then said."^ 

In 1865, when on the River Queen going to City Point 
to visit General Grant, President Lincoln was offered some 
champagne as a remedy for seasickness, from which he was 
suffering. "No, no, my young friend," was his prompt and 
emphatic answer, *T have seen many a man in my time sea- 
sick ashore from drinking that very article."* 

Mr. Lincoln did not needlessly parade his total abstinence 
convictions and habits before the public, but in his personal 
conduct, though reserved and quiet, he was as unyielding as 
adamant. 

3 Complete Works of Abraham Lincoln, Vol. IX., p. 144. 
* Charles Coffin, Life of Lincoln, p. 489. 



146 LATEST LIGHT ON ABRAHAM LINCOLN 

A Temperance Lecturer 

Mr. Lincoln was not only a lifelong and consistent tee- 
totaler, but he was a zealous champion of the cause of tem- 
perance. From childhood until his voice was hushed in death 
he was heard pleading with all classes to refrain from the use 
of strong drink. He gave his hearty approval of every organ- 
ization and movement for the promotion of temperance, and 
in his home city of Springfield he was for a time an active 
member of the Sons of Temperance. Previous to that, even 
"before the Sons of Temperance as an organization had an 
existence," as stated by him in an address to a delegation of 
that Society, he "made temperance speeches" and was actively 
engaged in advocating and promoting total abstinence. From 
that early period, the date of which Mr. Lincoln does not 
in that address definitely designate, he was active in temper- 
ance work until 1856, at which time he began to devote him- 
self with great energy to the movement against the extension 
of slavery. During the period of his temperance work his 
efforts were chiefly against the drink habit, although he fre- 
quently referred very significantly to the drink traffic, and 
was for a time, as hereinafter shown, very active in promoting 
prohibition. 

His Famous Temperance Speech 

was delivered in the Presbyterian Church of Springfield, 
Illinois, on the 22nd of February, 1842. It was a masterly 
effort, one of the best temperance addresses ever published, 
and the first of Mr. Lincoln's great speeches to appear in 
print. It was published in full in the Sangamon Journal at 
Springfield, March 26th, 1842, and is in Volume I. of the 
Nicolay and Hay Complete Works of Abraham Lincoln, and 
has been many times reproduced in periodicals, pamphlets and 
bound volumes. It is such a complete and characteristic 
statement of Mr. Lincoln's views on temperance that when 
his son, Hon. Robert T. Lincoln, was asked by the Rev. F. 



LINCOLN AND TEMPERANCE 147 

P. Miller for his father's views on that subject, he replied 
by sending him a copy of that address. 

At the time when that address was delivered, Mr. Lincoln 
had just passed his thirty-third birthday and was near the 
close of his eighth and last year as a member of the Illinois 
legislature. He was at the beginning of his high political 
aspirations, yet in no part of that speech is there the least 
disclosure of timidity or of that caution which frequently 
is manifest in discussion of the great reform questions by 
ambitious politicians. His arraignment of the liquor traffic, 
while dominated by a spirit of charity, is as vigorous, and 
his demands for the support of all good citizens in temper- 
ance reform as unequivocal and imperative as those of the 
most advanced advocate of today. Every note throughout 
the address rings clear and true, and every argument and 
appeal is fully up to date, although the address was delivered 
nearly three-quarters of a century ago, and early in the his- 
tory of our first great nation-wide temperance movement. 

Although delivered at the celebration of the birthday of 
George Washington, Mr. Lincoln's famous temperance lec- 
ture was not produced by that occasion. It was the product 
of many years of deep meditation and of a large experience 
in efforts to promote sobriety by inducing people to sign a 
temperance pledge. It stands out as a conspicuous and sig- 
nificant landmark along the way by which he reached his 
great distinction. It was given at the high-noon of his life, 
and will forever remain a revelation of what he had attained 
and a prophecy of what he was to become. Every glimpse 
we have of his attitude to the cause of temperance in the 
years that followed is in harmony with that address. 

During the summer of 1847 a temperance meeting was 
held by Mr. Lincoln at the 

South Forks Schoolhouse 
in Sangamon County, Illinois, about sixteen miles from 
Springfield. He had been invited to conduct that meeting 



148 LATEST LIGHT ON ABRAHAM LINCOLN 

by Preston Breckenridge, one of the prominent farmers of 
that vicinity. The meeting was held in a grove near the 
schoolhouse, which had recently been erected, and was at- 
tended by the country people, who remained standing dur- 
ing the exercises, or found seats upon logs, "stumps and 
branches of trees fallen to secure material from which to 
erect the new schoolhouse. Mr. Lincoln was 

A Member of Congress 

at the time he conducted that meeting, and the reputation 
he had gained as a public speaker attracted a large audience 
to hear his address; and in the solemn hush produced by his 
superb personality and the fervor of his eloquence, the bril- 
liant young statesman pointed out the evils of intemperance 
and earnestly pleaded with old and young to sign the following 
total abstinence pledge: 

"Whereas, The use of intoxicating liquors as a beverage 
is productive of pauperism, degradation and crime: and be- 
lieving it is our duty to discourage that which produces more 
evil than good, we therefore pledge ourselves to abstain from 
the use of intoxicating liquors as a beverage." 

This pledge had been prepared and signed by Mr. Lincoln, 
and on that day received the signatures of nearly all who 
were present. Moses Martin, a farmer's son, nineteen years 
of age, attended that meeting and was so impressed by Mr. 
Lincoln's address that he memorized the pledge which he 
signed, and at the launching of the Lincoln-Legion* at 
Oberlin, Ohio, in 1904 — fifty-seven years after the South 
Forks meeting, and when he was seventy-six years old — he 
led that great audience in repeating verbatim, with uplifted 
hands, the solemn covenant written, signed and advocated by 
Abraham Lincoln. 

♦The name of this organization has since been changed to Lincoln- 
Lee Legion, to commemorate the total abstinence principles and habits 
of General Robert E. Lee. 



LINCOLN AND TEMPERANCE 149 

Cleopas Breckenridge, a ten-year-old lad, son of Preston 
Breckenridge, before referred to, was also present at that 
meeting in the grove and was so deeply moved by the per- 
suasive address to which he listened that when Mr. Lincoln 
said to him, "Sonny, don't you want your name on this 
pledge?" he promptly and eagerly answered in the affirma- 
tive ; but being unable to write, his name was written for him 
upon the pledge by the hand that wrote the Emancipation 
Proclamation, thus binding him to the cause of temperance 
by bonds stronger than triple steel. And when far advanced 
in life, at the launching of the Lincoln-Legion movement at 
Oberlin, already referred to, he declared that he had kept 
that pledge inviolate. 

Few scenes which mark the career of Abraham Lincoln 
are more expressive and significant than that which repre- 
sents him as standing at a typical frontier gathering beneath 
the leafy branches of a beautiful grove, with his hand upon 
the head of this ten-year-old lad whose name he had just 
written upon a total abstinence pledge, and to whom he is 
saying in tones of never-to-be-forgotten tenderness, "Now, 
sonny, you keep that pledge and it will be the best act of your 
life." 

Dr. Howard H. Russell, founder and first superintendent 
of the Anti-Saloon League of America, and founder and 
superintendent of the Lincoln-Legion, was instrumental in 
securing and making public information relative to the South 
Forks temperance meeting. While in Springfield, in 1900, he 
visited a drug store kept by Mr. Roland Diller, for the pur- 
pose of seeing the desk used by Abraham Lincoln while he 
was a member of the Illinois legislature. During the conver- 
sation with Mr. Diller, Doctor Russell, for the first. time, 
heard the name of Cleopas Breckenridge, and learned that he 
was then living about sixteen miles from Springfield. With 
characteristic zeal, he prosecuted his search, and having some 
time later secured an interview with Mr. Breckenridge at 
Springfield, he received from him an account of the South 



150 LATEST LIGHT ON ABRAHAM LINCOLN 

Forks temperance meeting. To the facts he then learned, 
further information was added until the fascinating story 
was obtained in its entirety. And it is worthy of note that 
this story contributed largely to the organization of the Lin- 
coln-Legion branch of the Anti-Saloon League, and to the 
choice of the name by which that total abstinence movement 
is known. 

In August, 1903, I was present at the conference of Anti- 
Saloon League superintendents, held at Winona Lake, when 
Doctor Russell read a written statement of his interview with 
Mr. Breckenridge, and asked the conference to approve of 
the proposed Lincoln-Legion movement, which was done with 
unanimity and great enthusiasm. Subsequently, when it was 
decided to launch the new movement at Oberlin, Ohio, where 
the Anti-Saloon League was born, Doctor Russell secured the 
presence of Moses Martin and Cleopas Breckenridge at that 
meeting, where they publicly gave an account of Lincoln's 
temperance work at the South Forks schoolhouse and at 
other places in Central Illinois. To the alertness and un- 
tiring perseverance of Doctor Russell we are indebted for the 
priceless information he secured concerning Abraham Lin- 
coln's active and successful participation in the promotion of 
the pledge-signing feature of temperance reform. 

It adds immensely to the unique character and significance 
of this story to remember, as I have already stated, that at 
the time of the South Forks meeting Mr. Lincoln was a very 
energetic member of the national House of Representatives 
at Washington, and a promising young statesman. 

Major Mervvin's Work 

Mr. Lincoln's great interest in total abstinence was never 
more significantly manifested than by his action as President 
in furthering the temperance work of Major J. B. Merwin 
among the soldiers in the Union Army. Major Merwin was a 
rare man. With his pleasing and impressive personality were 
united superior intellectual endowments and ripe scholarship. 




ABRAHAM LINCOLN IN 1847 
Pledging Cleopas Breckenridge to total abstinence. From a drawing by 



Arthur I. Keller. 
Courtesy of Dr. Howard H. Russell. 



(See page I4q) 



LINCOLN AND TEMPERANCE 151 

He was the founder of the American Journal of Education at 
St. Louis, Missouri, and was widely known as a lecturer and 
writer of commanding ability. 

In 1854 he first met Abraham Lincoln at Springfield, 
Illinois, and was for a time associated with him in a work, 
fuller mention of which will be given in the latter portion 
of this chapter. Mr. Lincoln became so strongly attached to 
this refined and cultured reformer that early in his Presi- 
dency he embraced with great delight the opportunity pre- 
sented of securing his services in religious and temperance 
work in connection with the army. 

The opportunity came on July 17th, 1861, when there was 
presented to President Lincoln a request, signed by prominent 
men, asking that Major Merwin be assigned to the work of 
') inducing officers and soldiers of the Union Army to abstain 
from the use of alcoholic liquors as a beverage. As Mr. 
Lincoln knew that the Major was admirably fitted for that 
work the request met with his hearty response. Knowing 
Major Merwin since 1854, and regarding him as one of the 
ablest and most successful temperance workers he ever had 
known, he at once, and very gladly, assured him of his hearty 
approval of the work he proposed to do, and of his official 
co-operation with him in prosecuting it. To make this assur- 
ance of practical value. President Lincoln wrote upon the 
request presented to him the following endorsement: 

"If it be ascertained at the War Department that the 
President has legal authority to make an appointment such 
as is asked within, and Gen. Scott is of opinion it will be avail- 
able for good, then let it be done. 

"July 17th, 1861. "A. Lincoln.'' 

To this endorsement by the President were soon added the 
following: 

"I esteem the mission of Mr. Merwin to this army a happy 
circumstance, and request all commanders to give him free 



152 LATEST LIGHT ON ABRAHAM LINCOLN 

access to all our camps and posts, and also to multiply occa- 
sions to enable him to address our officers and men. 
"July 24, 1861. "WiNFiELD Scott, 

"Department of Virginia." 

"The mission of Mr. Merwin will be of great benefit to 
the troops, and I will furnish him with every facility to 
address the troops under my command. I hope the Gen'l 
commanding the army will give him such official position 
as Mr. Merwin may desire to carry out his object. 

"August 8, 1861. "B. F. Butler, 

"Maj.-Gen. Com'd'g." 

These endorsements indicate the esteem in which Major 
Merwin was held by men of high rank and give great weight 
to his testimony respecting Mr. Lincoln's temperance views 
and activities. 

During the Major's work in Washington he frequently 
addressed gatherings of soldiers from the President's carriage, 
the use of which was given him by Mr. Lincoln for that 
purpose. General Scott was very enthusiastic in his approval 
and encouragement of this work, and after hearing the Major 
address the soldiers several times, he remarked to President 
Lincoln: "A man of such force and moral power to inspire 
courage, patriotism, faith and obedience among the troops 
is worth more than a half dozen regiments of raw recruits." 

The President watched Major Merwin's work in the army 
with keen interest, for he believed in total abstinence, he had 
confidence in the devout. Christian man who was conducting 
that work, and being desirous of affording him every facility 
for prosecuting it, issued the following very remarkable order: 

"Surgeon General will send Mr. Merwin wherever he may 
think the public service may require. 

"July 24, 1862. "A. Lincoln.'' 




HOWARD H. RUSSELL, D.D., LL.D. 

Founder and first superintendent of the Anti-Saloon League and of the 

Lincoln-Lee Legion. 



LINCOLN AND TEMPERANCE 153 

When in November, 19 13, Major Merwin addressed a 
great Anti-Saloon League convention at Columbus, Ohio, a 
solemn and impressive silence fell upon the assembly when 
the venerable educator and reformer took from his pocket 
an old Daguerreotype of Abraham Lincoln, in which was 
enclosed the above order in President Lincoln's handwriting; 
and, trembling with weakness and emotion, deliberately and 
distinctly read its fifteen words with the date and signature. 
This little missive spoke volumes respecting Abraham Lincoln's 
profound interest in temperance work, which seemed of suf- 
ficient importance to call forth the hearty and unqualified 
written commendation of more than one hundred of the most 
prominent senators, representatives, governors and leading 
citizens of the nation. 

Refused to Sell Liquor 

Hon. Leonard Swett, to whom we are indebted for the 
information here given, was one of Mr. Lincoln's staunch 
and constant friends. He was a man of unquestioned and un- 
questionable integrity and a very learned and distinguished 
lawyer. Any word from him respecting Abraham Lincoln 
may well be accepted as trustworthy. He was personally 
familiar with all the events in Mr. Lincoln's early life, and 
in an article prepared by him for a monumental work, pub- 
lished in 1888 by the North American Review, and edited 
by Allan Thorndyke Rice, editor of that magazine, Mr. Swett 
states that when, in 1833, Mr. Lincoln's business partner 
proposed to add liquors to their articles of merchandise, Mr. 
Lincoln strenuously objected, and carried his opposition to 
the extent of withdrawing from the partnership. The fol- 
lowing is Mr. Swett's statement in the article mentioned: 

"A difference, however, soon arose between him and the 
old proprietor, the present partner of Lincoln, in reference 
to the introduction of whiskey into the establishment. The 
partner insisted that, on the principle that honey catches flies, 
a barrel of whiskey in the store would invite custom, and 



154 LATEST LIGHT ON ABRAHAM LINCOLN 

their sales would increase, while Lincoln, who never liked 
liquor, opposed this innovation. He told me, not more than 
a year before he was elected President, that he had never 
tasted liquor in his life. 'What!' I said, 'do you mean to 
say you never tasted it?' 'Yes, I never tasted it.' The 
result was that a bargain was made by which Lincoln should 
retire from his partnership in the store. He was to step out 
as he stepped in. He had nothing when he stepped in, and 
he had nothing when he stepped out. But the partner took 
all the goods, and agreed to pay all the debts, for a part of 
which Mr. Lincoln had become jointly liable." 

In 1908, twenty years after this statement was first pub- 
lished, the German-American Alliance, a liquor-favoring or- 
ganization, in its zeal to connect the name of Lincoln with 
the liquor traffic, with a great flourish of trumpets, published 
a facsimile of the liquor license which Berry, Lincoln's part- 
ner, secured. The license "ordered that William F. Berry, 
in the name of Berry & Lincoln, have a license to keep a 
tavern in New Salem," where Lincoln then resided. 

The wording of this license shows that it was given to 
William F. Berry, and though "in the name of Berry & Lin- 
coln," Mr, Swett's statement shows that Lincoln peremptorily 
refused to have anything to do with it. Other evidence of 
his determination, even at that early day, not to be in any 
way connected with, or responsible- for the sale of alcoholic 
liquors is seen in his refusal to sign the bond which the Alli- 
ance published in connection with the license. To the bond 
was attached the names of Abraham Lincoln, William F. 
Berry and Bowling Greene. But the fascimile reproduction 
of that bond as published by the Alliance shows that Lincoln's 
name was not written by himself, but was probably written 
by Berry. 

The world owes an immense debt of gratitude to the 
American-German Alliance for its publication of a facsimile 
reproduction of that historic liquor seller's bond. Before 
that publication, the reading public had learned from authentic 



LINCOLN AND TEMPERANCE 155 

history the truth, as I have here stated it, about the tavern 
license, and Miss Ida M. Tarbell, who saw the bond in the 
official records, had declared that Lincoln's name was not 
attached to it by his own hand. But it is exceedingly gratify- 
ing to have her statement confirmed by the facsimile of Lin- 
coln's name attached to that bond unquestionably by some 
other hand. 

This is a very significant event in the early life of Abra- 
ham Lincoln and should not fail to receive the reader's care- 
ful consideration. At the time these events occurred he was 
an unmarried man, only twenty-four years of age, with a 
very limited education, without means, without occupation 
apart from the unprofitable business in which he was then 
engaged, having never held any public office, with no family 
standing or personal reputation to sustain, without any 
thought of future prominence that might make it especially 
desirable for his life to be as faultless as possible at that 
period ; with no active temperance sentiment in the community 
where he lived, and without an associate to suggest or approve 
his decision. And yet, he promptly arose to heroic proportions 
of purposeful manhood, and stubbornly refused to have any 
participation or part in the traffic in strong drink. Viewed in 
connection with conditions and known influences his course in 
this matter seems to have been the result of special divine 
interposition. 

The attempts which have been made to connect him with 
the liquor traffic through those early business affairs have only 
caused his name to shine with a brighter luster and his conduct 
to appear as revealing marvelous wisdom and fidelity. 

It is a very defective and misleading history of Abraham 
Lincoln that does not contain the information that he was 

An Ardent Prohibitionist 

There are three classes of temperance workers, those who 
favor the promotion of total abstinence by inducing people, 
young and old, to sign a total abstinence pledge; those who 



156 LATEST LIGHT ON ABRAHAM LINCOLN 

believe in restriction and "regulation" of the liquor traffic 
by license tax and kindred methods ; and those who believe in 
the enactment and enforcement of laws absolutely forbidding 
the manufacture, importation and sale of all alcoholic liquors 
for beverage purposes. 

Mr. Lincoln belonged to the first and third of these 
classes; he was personally a lifelong teetolater, sought to 
promote total abstinence by others, and as a means for the 
promotion of temperance he believed in and advocated "moral 
suasion for the drunkard and legal suasion for the liquor 
seller." He was quite as pronounced in his prohibition views 
and declarations as in his advocacy of total abstinence. 

Mr. Lincoln never belonged to the Prohibition Party — 
there was no such party in his day — but long before that party 
was organized, before any state had a prohibitory law, before 
any great temperance organization was seeking to secure such 
a law, he was advocating the theories of government and 
proclaiming the principles of law that are the immovable 
foundation upon which the nation-wide prohibition movement 
of the present time is based. As early as 1842, in his famous 
Washingtonian speech at Springfield, he said: "Whether or 
not the world would be vastly benefited by a total and final 
banishment from it of all intoxicating drinks, seems to me 
not now to be an open question. Three-fourths of mankind 
confess the affirmative with their tongues, and, I believe, all 
the rest acknowledge it in their hearts." This declaration 
was a message from the total abstinence camp of the temper- 
ance army calling for governmental re-enforcement in the 
battle then in progress to save men from the destructive re- 
sults of the legalized traffic in strong drink. 

The Historical Setting 

of this impassioned cry for help reveals its immense signifi- 
cance. It was a wail of anguish in the heat of an arduous 
and unsatisfactory struggle against overwhelming odds. The 
address itself was in the interest and under the auspices of 



LINCOLN AND TEMPERANCE 157 

the Washingtonian Total Abstinence movement, which began 
in Baltimore two years before, and had made great progress 
throughout the nation. It began its work among men addicted 
to the excessive use of strong drink, b.nd its recruits were 
gathered from that class. Mr/ Lincolil _gladly welcomed this 
movement and entered enthusiastically into its activities. He 
was pleased with its dominating spirit and greatly delighted 
with its achievements. His heart was filled Vith joy when 
he saw it so successful that, as Senator Blair tells us, "In a 
few years six hundred thousand drunkards had been re- 
formed."' 

But he must have been shocked and saddened when he 
learned 

The Appalling Fact 

that, as the same authority states, "three-fourths of their 
number soon turned back to their cups and to conditions worse 
than those from which they had been recruited."^ 

Confronted with the fact that the great Washingtonian 
movement, the total abstinence features of which he had with 
good reason extolled to the skies, was able to hold to lives 
of sobriety only one hundred and fifty thousand of its six 
hundred thousand recruits, while the saloons succeeded in 
luring back into drunkenness four hundred and fifty thousand 
of their former victims who had signed the total abstinence 
pledge, Mr. Lincoln's practical mind, with tireless diligence, 
sought a more efficient remedy for the liquor curse. 

He placed a high estimate upon the influence for good of 
the new associations into which these reformed men had come ; 
but he knew there must be a mighty power somewhere behind 
the liquor traffic itself, giving it the tremendous strength 
by which it was enabled to storm the citadels of the reform 
forces, and drag back to re-enslavement three-fourths of those 
who with high resolve had taken the total abstinence pledge 

' The Temperance Movement, p. 435. 
« Ibid., p. 435. 



158 LATEST LIGHT ON ABRAHAM LINCOLN 

and entered upon a life of sobriety and honor. And he was 
not long in discovering that the thing which gave the saloon 
its measureless power for evil was civil government. He 
also learned to his utter amazement "that many of the most 
zealous and active promoters of the Washingtonian movement 
discouraged all resort to the enactment and enforcement of 
laws against the traffic."^ 

Senator Blair, commenting on this fact, in his excellent 
work, says: "And who knows that the demoralization of 
public sentiment which the Washingtonians created in their 
opposition to legal restraint was not the principal reason why 
the cup of temptation and destruction was again put to the lips 
of the 450,000 who fell and perished in that last state which 
is worse than the first?"® 

Mr. Lincoln's patient soul was greatly troubled when he 
came to realize that state and city governments were arrayed 
against him in his kindly efforts to rescue his neighbors from 
intemperance. With great love and tenderness he had prose- 
cuted that work, and the holy passion which burned in his 
heart burst into a flame of righteous indignation when he saw 
many of those who had been rescued cruelly snatched from 
the embraces of their rescuers and borne away in triumph 
by the licensed liquor forces. His great heart bled in pity, 
while his mighty brain diligently sought a remedy for a wrong 
so monstrous. 

He had thus been brought face to face with the destruc- 
tive influence and work of the legalized liquor traffic, and the 
unspeakable wrong of governmental complicity in that traffic. 
But he never acted hastily. He always took time to make 
diligent investigation before entering upon any great work, 
or announcing any important conviction. He had deliberately 
reached the conclusion which he repeatedly proclaimed, that 
intemperance was the greatest curse that ever afflicted the 
human race; he well knew that the liquor traffic was strong, 
and very securely entrenched in the commercial interests of 
^ The Temperance Movement, p. 435. * Ibid., p. 436. 



LINCOLN AND TEMPERANCE 159 

state and nation, and that it would fight furiously against 
any and all efforts to reduce its privileges and powers. 
Therefore, he did not regard it as wise to bring on a general 
engagement with the enemy before making a most thorough 
preparation for the battle royal that would follow. He fore- 
saw a struggle between right and wrong involving the funda- 
mental principles of law, and the sacred functions of civil 
government. He knew there would be an immense work of 
public enlightenment required before a decisive victory could 
be won. To prepare for aiding that work he gave himself 
with all diligence to the study of foundation principles as 
taught by the best authorities. His course of study is re- 
vealed by his speeches during later years, which show that 
his basic conception of governmental polity and procedure 
rested upon the scriptural declaration that the purpose of 
civil government is "the punishment of evil doers and the 
praise of them that do well," and Blackstone's declaration 
that law is "a rule of civil conduct prescribed by the supreme 
power of a state commanding what is right and prohibiting 
what is wrong." 

As Mr. Lincoln prosecuted his studies during the twelve 
years between 1842 and 1854, he discovered that every rep- 
utable authority upon law and civil jurisprudence in all 
civilized history constructed all their theories of government 
in absolute and perfect accord with the letter and spirit of 
those two declarations. And his mind became saturated with 
the conviction that government in all its branches and ac- 
tivities should be as the scriptures say, "The minister of God 
to thee for good, an avenger executing wrath upon him that 
doeth evil." He could not escape the conclusion to which 
those studies conducted him, and which he repeatedly stated 
in after years, that no wrong can rightfully be given the 
sanction and protection of civil government; and that the 
beverage liquor traf^c, being wrong, must be forbidden and 
as fully as possible prohibited by civil government. These 
convictions became such a tremendous working force in Mr. 



i6o LATEST LIGHT ON ABRAHAM LINCOLN 

Lincoln's mind and heart that he longed for the opportunity 
to proclaim them, with conditions favorable to good results. 
In 1855 the opportunity came. 

The Maine Prohibitory Law 

had been enacted, and was proving so effective and satisfac- 
tory that in other states movements to secure the enactment 
of a similar law sprang into being and were conducted with 
great vigor and enthusiasm. In Illinois such a movement was 
inaugurated, and in 1854 Majoi Merwin, of whose total 
abstinence work I have already spoken, visited that state to aid 
in the campaign for prohibition. His first meeting was held 
in the old State House, in Springfield, and was attended by 
a notable audience. Mr. Lincoln was present, and at the 
close of Major Merwin's address, in response to repeated 
calls he came forward and held all who were present in rapt 
attention, while he luminously expounded to them the prin- 
ciples of law and the purposes and functions of government, 
which he had diligently studied during the twelve preceding 
years. In that 

Old State House Address 

Mr. Lincoln said: "The law of self-protection is the first and 
primary law of civilized society. Law is for the protection, 
conservation and extension of right things, of right conduct, 
not for the protection of evil and wrongdoing. The state 
must in its legislative action recognize this truth and protect 
and promote right conditions and right conduct. This it will 
accomplish not by any toleration of evils, not by attempting 
to throw around any evil the shield of law ; nor by any attempt 
to license the evil. This is the first and most important 
function in the legislation of the modern state. The pro- 
hibition of the liquor traffic, except for medical and mechanical 
purposes, thus becomes the new evangel for the safety and 
redemption of the people from the social, political and moral 
curse of the saloon." 



LINCOLN AND TEMPERANCE i6i 

Campaign for Prohibition 

The coming of Major Merwin to Illinois for the purpose 
of aiding in the campaign for state-wide prohibition, and his 
first meeting, at which the above statements were made by 
Mr. Lincoln, were exceedingly timely. The campaign for 
prohibition, of which that was the opening gun, found him 
well prepared to render yeoman service. His great interest 
in the cause is seen in the fact that at the close of the meet- 
ing he invited Major Merwin to be his guest, and devoted 
nearly the whole night to examining, with him, a copy of the 
Maine Law, and in commenting upon its provisions. And 
during the months that followed he engaged actively in the 
campaign, using in his speeches the same arguments and illus- 
trations that were so effectively employed by him four years 
later in his debates with Douglas. 

At Jacksonville, Bloomington, Decatur, Danville, Carlin- 
ville, Peoria, and many other important centers of the state 
he addressed meetings at which Major Merwin also spoke. 
And sometimes with other speakers, but frequently alone, he 
continued to advocate with great zeal, and as constantly as 
his professional work would permit, the cause of prohibition, 
until the election in the early summer of 1855. With the 
results of the election Mr. Lincoln was sorely disappointed, 
especially the defeat of the prohibitory law. Of this he spoke 
with great sorrow in a letter to Judge Whitney, dated June 
7th, 1855. 

During this campaign Mr. Lincoln frequently made use 
of the following statements: "This legalized liquor traffic, 
as carried on in the saloons and grogshops, is the tragedy 
of civilization. Good citizenship demands and requires that 
what is right should not only be made known, but be made 
prevalent; and that what is evil should not only be defeated, 
but destroyed. The saloon has proved itself to be the greatest 
foe, the most blighting curse of our modern civilization, and 
this is why I am a practical prohibitionist. 



1 62 LATEST LIGHT ON ABRAHAM LINCOLN 

"We must not be satisfied until the public sentiment of 
this state, and the individual conscience shall be instructed to 
look upon the saloonkeeper and the liquor seller, with all the 
license each can give him, as simply and only a privileged 
malefactor — a criminal. 

"The real issue in this controversy, the one pressing upon 
every mind that gives the subject careful consideration, is 
that legalizing the manufacture, sale and use of intoxicating 
liquors as a beverage is a wrong — as all history and every 
development of the traffic proves it to be — a moral, social, 
and political wrong." 

His attitude towards the saloon may be summed up in his 
striking and laconic expression, "The liquor traffic has de- 
fenders but no defense." 

The Hon. Elihu B. Washburne, one of the ablest and most 
influential men of Illinois during the war period, and long 
into the eighties, was one of Mr. Lincoln's devoted friends. 
There is, therefore, peculiar significance in the statement 
which he makes that "when the whole truth is disclosed of 
Mr. Lincoln's life during the years 1854-55 it will throw the 
flood of new light on the character of Mr. Lincoln and will 
add new luster to his greatness and his patriotism." In this 
statement Mr. Washburne must have referred to the work 
for prohibition in Illinois, in which Mr. Lincoln was engaged 
during those years, for there was nothing else in Mr. Lin- 
coln's life during that period to justify such a statement. 

A Dynamic Deliv?:rance 

was the speech of Mr. Lincoln at Clinton, Illinois, in 1855 
in defense of fifteen women of that city who were being 
prosecuted by a saloonkeeper under an indictment for the 
destruction of his property. They had entered his saloon 
together and with axes and hammers had smashed bottles, 
barrels and demijohns after he had persisted in selling their 
husbands liquor, in spite of their tearful entreaties that he 
would cease to do so. Mr. Lincoln, being present, watched 



LINCOLN AND TEMPERANCE 163 

the trial with great interest. He was not employed to defend 
the accused women, but as their case was not being satis- 
factorily conducted, he consented to address the court and jury 
in their defense, in the course of which he said: "In this 
case I would change the order of the indictment and have it 
read, The State vs. Mr. Whiskey, instead of The State vs. 
The Ladies, and touching this question there are three laws: 
First, the law of self-protection; second, the law of the stat- 
ute ; third, the law of God. The law of self-protection is the 
law of necessity, as shown when our fathers threw the tea 
into the Boston Harbor, and in asserting their right to life, 
liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. This is the defense 
of these women. The man who has persisted in selling 
whiskey has had no regard for their well-being or the welfare 
of their husbands and sons. He has had no fear of God or 
regard for man; neither has he had any regard for the laws 
of the statute. No jury can fix any damage or punishment 
for any violation of the moral law. The course pursued by 
this liquor dealer has been for the demoralization of society. 
His groggery has been a nuisance. These women, finding 
all moral suasion of no avail with this fellow, impervious to all 
tender appeal, alike regardless of their prayers and tears, in 
order to protect their households and promote the welfare 
of the community, united to suppress the nuisance. The 
good of society demanded its suppression. They accomplished 
what otherwise could not have been done." 

In his life of Lincoln, Wm. H. Herndon, Lincoln's law 
partner, in giving an account of this trial, says: "Lincoln 
gave some of his own observations on the ruinous effects of 
whiskey on society."^ 

Never were the reasons which call for the enactment and 
enforcement of laws prohibiting the beverage liquor traffic 
stated with greater clearness than In that speech which was 
made by Abraham Lincoln three years before his debates with 
Douglas. Its statements of law, its characterization of the 
® Vol. II., pp. 12, 13. 



i64 LATEST LIGHT ON ABRAHAM LINCOLN 

saloon, its full and fearless enunciation of human rights and 
duties, and its felicitous and forceful language, place it in a 
class with Mr. Lincoln's best literary productions. It has 
stood for more than three score years and will ever stand a 
sufficient and unanswerable argument against the perpetua- 
tion of the saloon. It contains nothing that could be wisely 
omitted, and lacks nothing which the most advanced enlight- 
enment can supply.* 

Mr. Lincoln's participation in the campaign for prohibition 
in Illinois in 1854-55 was inevitable. With his strong altru- 
istic impulses, his attitude of uncompromising hostility to the 
liquor traffic, and his thorough knowledge of the divine origin 
and sacred mission of civil government, he could not have 
remained silent while such a movement was in progress in his 
state. 

His championship of the Maine law was quite unlike that 
of other speakers. Although I was only seventeen years old 
at that time, I was upon the platform advocating prohibition 
in my native Ohio, and, like other speakers, I depicted the 
harmfulness of the liquor traffic and the beneficent results 
of anti-liquor legislation; but Mr. Lincoln, in his speeches, 
went to the foundation of the subject and demanded pro- 
hibition upon the fundamental principle that as the declared 
mission and purpose of law was to promote right and prohibit 
wrong, government could not rightfully sustain to the bever- 
age liquor traffic any other attitude than that of absolute and 
unyielding hostility. His participation in that campaign for 
prohibition in Illinois was the legitimate and logical result 
of all his previous life, and, as we shall see later in this 
chapter, was also in perfect accord with the position which 
he maintained during all the years that followed. 

There is ample reason for believing that Mr. Lincoln 

♦It will be observed that Mr. Lincoln did not attempt to disprove 
any of the charges made against the women, but assuming they had done 
as was alleged, he insisted that it was a justifiable act of self-defense, 
and the court evidently concurred in that opinion, for the saloon smashers 
were released and nothing more was ever heard of the prosecution. 



LINCOLN AND TEMPERANCE 165 

looked upon his public participation in that campaign for 
prohibition as the beginning of a work which he would con- 
tinue to prosecute with diligence during succeeding years. 
He was not the man to engage in a battle with the intention 
of turning back before the victory was won. He had been 
for years anticipating a day of nation-wide, even world-wide, 
triumph, v/hen there would not be one slave or one drunkard 
in all the world. He had expressed the hope for the coming 
of such a day in his famous Washingtonian speech in 1842, 
and the declaration of that aspiration and hope was more 
than a lofty flight of eloquence; it was a prophetic vision 
which he beheld as he wrought untiringly against the two 
great evils — slavery and intemperance, which were ever as- 
sociated in his thoughts and purposes. And that his vision 
of the day of victory was connected with a purpose to aid 
as he might be able in hastening its coming, is shown by his 
letter to Pickett, written on the day he delivered that address, 
in which is found the slogan: "Recruit for victory." The 
unfolding of a muster-roll for recruits to the antislavery and 
anti-liquor armies implied that his own name had in his pur- 
poses been entered in the list of volunteers to serve during 
the war against the two evils. Everything goes to show that 
it was at that time his purpose to continue actively in the 
struggle for prohibition. But he was abruptly turned aside 
from his purpose by the unexpected entrance into the pro- 
slavery propaganda of a movement for the extension of 
slavery. The contest thus suddenly brought on was, in Mr, 
Lincoln's opinion, foremost and supreme, and he turned from 
all else — even from his professional work, to resist the aggres- 
sions of the slave power. 

Mr. Lincoln's Special Preparation 

That he entered the arena thoroughly prepared for that 
battle of giants every one knows; that his special prepara- 
tion was made during the twelve years between his retirement 
from public life in 1842 and the introduction by Douglas 



i66 LATEST LIGHT ON ABRAHAM LINCOLN 

of the Kansas-Nebraska Bill in 1854, which brought on the 
contest, is also beyond question. But during that period Mr. 
Lincoln was not engaged either in any warfare against slavery 
or in preparation for such a warfare. He was always op- 
posed to slavery, but he was debarred by the national Con- 
stitution from interfering with it in the states where it 
existed. And nothing pertaining to slavery was an issue 
before the people during those years. There was, therefore, 
no occasion, either actual or prospective, for Mr. Lincoln to 
be engaged in a preparation for such a contest; but there 
were many reasons why he should be engaged in making 
the most ample preparation for a titanic struggle with the 
traffic in strong drink. 

And with such strength of intellect; with such absolute 
and unswerving honesty; with such profound sincerity, and 
with such patient perseverance did Mr. Lincoln prosecute his 
studies in preparation for the latter that there came a time 
when it could truthfully be said that in all the world there 
was not his superior in a knowledge of fundamental law and 
.its application to the responsibilities and duties of civil gov- 
ernment. 

Douglas had devoted years to preparation for defending 
his Popular Sovereignty theories, and with all the world 
in ignorance of his plans for the extension of slavery no one 
was preparing to answer his arguments in defense of his 
cherished schemes. He cunningly stole a march on the forces 
of freedom and took them and the nation by surprise when 
in 1854 he rushed into the arena with his Kansas-Nebraska 
Bill, thoroughly prepared to defend it with its slavery-favor- 
ing repeal of the Missouri Compromise. But to his great 
surprise and to the amazement of the nation, he was met by 
Lincoln more fully prepared than himself for the conflict, 
and able, through his familiarity with the fundamental prin- 
ciples of law to expose his sophistry and fully answer his 
arguments. 

Douglas was the master-mind of his party and was accus- 



LINCOLN AND TEMPERANCE 167 

tomed to encounters with Sumner, Seward, Chase and other 
scarcely less distinguished associates in the senate of the 
United States. But when he grappled with Lincoln in discus- 
sion he declared him to be without a peer in his knowledge 
of the fundamental principles of government. "You under- 
stand these questions better than does any other man in the 
nation," said Douglas to Lincoln after their first encounter 
in the fifties, and the "Little Giant" asked for and secured 
a truce with Lincoln during the remainder of the campaign. 
He could successfully cope with the strongest antislavery 
champions in the senate, but he felt himself overmastered when 
he encountered Lincoln. 

The nation was amazed at Lincoln's wonderful equipment 
for the struggle with Douglas. But the people of Illinois, 
who before the debates with Douglas had heard Mr. Lin- 
coln's speeches for temperance reform, knew that it was by 
his painstaking and prolonged studies of prohibition that he 
had attained to the matchless mastery of fundamental truth 
which made him the foremost champion of freedom in the 
struggles against the extension of slavery. The thunder- 
bolts of law and logic with which he demolished the Popular 
Sovereignty fallacy which Douglas had so skillfully con- 
structed, were prepared by Lincoln to be used by him in bom- 
barding the entrenchments which civil government had built 
around the liquor traffic. 

It is recorded that a ranchman in Africa, when he dis- 
covered that a lion was preying upon his herds, went out 
suitably armed to slay the marauder. As he proceeded in 
his hunt a huge tiger leaped from the jungle and bore down 
upon him with the evident purpose of gratifying his man- 
eating propensities. Promptly the hunter turned upon the 
tiger the heavily-loaded gun he intended for the lion, and 
found it quite equal to the unexpected emergency. He killed 
the tiger with the weapon he had prepared for the slaughter 
of the lion. By substituting the liquor traffic for the lion and 
slavery for the tiger in this fragment of history we have 



i68 LATEST LIGHT ON ABRAHAM LINCOLN 

the story of Lincoln's unconscious preparation for his con- 
test with Douglas and his successful warfare against slavery. 

And in his last interview with Major Merwin, on the day 
of his assassination, he referred to that statement in his speech 
in 1842, and said: "After reconstruction the next great ques- 
tion will be the overthrow of the liquor traffic." 

The declaration of Mr. Lincoln's party in 1856 that 
polygamy and slavery were "twin relics of barbarism," did 
not to any great extent absorb his attention, for he had long 
regarded the liquor traffic as the only wrong sufficiently 
heinous to be designated as the twin of slavery. Hence, his 
opposition to the liquor traffic was based upon the same fun- 
damental principles as was his warfare against slavery. And 
when he was prepared successfully to advocate prohibition 
he was fully equipped to oppose slavery; nor can that traffic 
remain one hour under the protection or by the permission 
of law without a violation of the sacred obligations of civil 
government as stated and expounded by Abraham Lincoln 
in his warfare against slavery. 

The Republican National Platforms 

of 1856 and i860 state clearly and unequivocally the prin- 
ciples upon which the movement for the prohibition of the 
liquor traffic is based. The platform of 1856 declared "that 
the Constitution confers upon Congress sovereign power over 
the Territories of the United States for their government." 
To that claim the national convention of i860 added the fol- 
lowing: "We deny the authority of Congress, of a Territorial 
legislature, or of any individual to give legal existence to 
slavery in any territory of the United States." 

Standing upon these two planks of his party's national 
platforms of principles, Abraham Lincoln, in i860, was tri- 
umphantly elected President of the United States and neither 
he nor his party ever receded or deviated from the position 
taken in those two declarations. 



LINCOLN AND TEMPERANCE 169 

Sovereign right to govern, but not the right to give legal 
standing to slavery! There must have been some good and 
sufficient ground for denying the authority of Congress to 
give legal existence to slavery in the realm over which it 
had sovereign power to rule. That ground was many times 
and very clearly stated by Mr. Lincoln to be "the assumption 
that slavery is wrong." 

Because it was wrong, and for no other reason, it was 
'held that slavery could not be given legal existence in the 
territories of the nation. For the same reason slavery could 
not rightfully be admitted in any portion of the national 
domain where it did not at that time exist. This is implied 
in the above declaration of tli£ republican party as explained 
and defended by Abraham Lincoln. And as that declaration 
of the republican party respecting slavery is based upon fun- 
damental law, it must be true that no power has the right 
to give legal existence to any admitted wrong. This was Mr. 
Lincoln's belief, and he repeatedly applied that rule to the 
liquor traffic. He regarded that traffic as inherently wrong, 
and advocated its prohibition upon that ground. In so doing 
he was simply applying to another evil the fundamental prin- 
ciples upon which he opposed the extension of slavery. 

Opposed to License 

Mr. Lincoln was always opposed to the license method 
of dealing with the liquor traffic. There is no word from him, 
either written or spoken, in approval of that system. 

During his campaign for a prohibitory law in Illinois in 
1854-55 he kept it before the people that a license tax could 
not fail to fasten the liquor traffic more securely upon the 
community. He was very pronounced in his declarations that 
such would be the case. It is remarkable that while high 
license was first suggested and approved by temperance work- 
ers as a means for promoting temperance reform, and has been 
advocated by distinguished champions of temperance even in 
recent years, when the matter was first brought to his atten- 



I70 LATEST LIGHT ON ABRAHAM LINCOLN 

tion, Mr. Lincoln emphatically declared that every dollar paid 
by the saloon as a license tax would be an entrenchment for 
the liquor traffic and make it more difficult ever to suppress it. 
"Never by licensing an evil can the evil be removed or weak- 
ened," was his oft-repeated declaration during his efforts 
to secure the adoption of a prohibitory law by the people of 
that state in 1855. INIr. Lincoln saw this clearly even at that 
early date, because of his thorough knowledge of the funda- 
mental principles of government and the inevitable result of 
taking tribute of that which is wrong. His whole nature 
revolted against the thought of the license system, and as a 
young politician and reformer I learned from his teachings 
the exceedingly objectionable and harmful nature of the 
liquor license policy. And if during later years, in my 
hostility to the license system, I have at times been in advance 
of some of my associates in the temperance work, it has been 
because of my unyielding adherence to the teachings of Abra- 
ham Lincoln. 

Mr. Lincoln strenuously objected also to the section of 

The Internal Revenue Measure 

that placed a tax upon alcoholic liquors for the support of 
the national government. "That tax," said he, "will tend 
to perpetuate the liquor traffic and I cannot consent to aid in 
doing that." 

"But," said Secretary Chase, the author of that revenue 
law, "Mr. President, this is a war measure. It is only a tem- 
porary measure for a present emergency, and cannot fasten 
the liquor traffic upon the nation, for it will be repealed as 
soon as the war is ended." 

While that Internal Revenue bill was under consideration 
in Congress it was wtII known that President Lincoln, for 
reasons already stated, was strongly opposed to its liquor 
license provision and was inclined to veto the measure unless 
that feature was removed. He did not mince matters, but 
was very pronounced and outspoken in the expression of his 



LINCOLN AND TEMPERANCE 171 

convictions. This is quite remarkable, in view of the low 
level of moral purpose in governmental affairs entertained by 
many leading statesmen of that period. That low level of 
moral purpose is indicated by the following declarations of 
Senator Fessenden of Maine, chairman of the Finance Com- 
mittee of the Senate and subsequently Secretary of the Treas- 
ury. On the 27th of May, 1862, in his defense of the liquor 
tax provision of the Internal Revenue bill, Senator Fessenden 
said: 

"The United States looking at it as a fact that this busi- 
ness as a business is carried on, and looking upon the luxuries 
and the vices of men as the most proper sources of revenue 
in the world, just lay their hands upon it and say, if you will 
do these things you shall pay for it ; we lay a tax upon it." 

The declaration that "the vices of men," as well as their 
luxuries, "are the most proper sources of revenue in the 
world," constitutes a very dark background on which appears 
the illuminated and thrilling picture of President Lincoln's 
attitude upon that question. And the President was not alone 
in his hostility to the liquor license tax ; able and distinguished 
statesmen like Senators Wilson, Pomeroy and Harris, with 
others scarcely less prominent and influential, very strongly 
opposed that tax upon alcoholic liquors. On May 27th, 1862, 
Senator Wilson, who subsequently became Vice-President of 
the United States, in discussing this feature of the Revenue 
bill, said: 

"I do not think any man in this country should have a 
license from the Federal Government to sell intoxicating 
liquors. I look upon the liquor trade as grossly immoral, 
causing more evil than anything else in the country, and I 
think the Federal Government ought not to derive a revenue 
from the retail of intoxicating drinks. I think if this section 
remains in the Bill it will have a most demoralizing influence 
upon the country, for it will lift into a kind of respectability 
the retail traffic in liquors. The man who has paid the Fed- 
eral Government $20.00 for a license to retail ardent spirits 



172 LATEST LIGHT ON ABRAHAM LINCOLN 

will feel that he is acting under the authority of the Federal 
Government and that any regulations, state or municipal, 
interfering with him are mere temporary and local arrange- 
ments, that should yield to the authority of the Federal Gov- 
ernment. Sir, I hope the Congress of the United States is 
not to put upon the statute books of the country a law by 
which the tens of thousands of persons in the country who 
are dealing out ardent spirits to the destruction of the health 
and life of hundreds of thousands and the morals of the 
nation, are to be raised to a respectable position by paying 
the Federal Government $20.00 for a license to do this. . . . 
"I would as soon have this Government license gambling 
houses, or houses of ill-fame; and it would be just as credit- 
able to this Congress. I believe that such a provision sanctions 
the grossest immorality; that it will have a most deleterious 
effect upon the prosperity of the nation and the morals of 
the nation. For the sake of putting a few thousand dollars 
into the treasury, we, the people of the United States, are to 
give licenses to sell rum. 

"The Senator from ]\Iaine (Mr. Fessenden) has told us 
several times since this Bill was before the Senate that our 
object is to put money into the treasury. I do not agree to 
the declaration. That we want to put money into the treasury 
is true; that the primary object of this Bill is to put money 
into the treasury is also true; but there is something over 
and above putting money into the treasury ; and that is so to 
arrange this mode of putting money into the treasury that it 
shall not interfere with the business interests of the country, 
and, above all, that it shall not tend to demoralize this people 
and dishonor this nation. Every senator knows that this 
nation has been, and is being, demoralized by the rum traffic. 
Every man knows that our army of 500,000 or 600,000 men 
in the field has been greatly demoralized by the sale and use 
of rum. I saw a letter a day or two ago from one of the 
most accomplished officers in the service in the State of Ken- 
tucky, and he said more men in the army of the LTnited States 



LINCOLN AND TEMPERANCE 173 

were slaughtered by whiskey than by the balls of the enemy. 
Since this war opened we have lost thousands of lives by 
rum. Sir, with this nation suffering as it is suffering by 
the sale of ardent spirits, the Congress of the United States 
proposes to give its sanction to the traffic. I would as soon 
give my sanction to the traffic of the slave trade as I would 
to the sale of liquors. This nation comes forward and pro- 
poses to give a sort of sanction to the liquor traffic by taking 
$20.00 out of the pockets of the men who by dealing out 
poisons to the people have wrung them from suffering wives 
and children. 

"There is not a rum seller, or a friend of the rum seller, 
on this continent that will not welcome this tax. It will be 
hailed from one end of this country to the other by the whole 
rum-selling interest. If the rum sellers of the country had 
held a national convention they would have asked you to put 
precisely such a thing as a license to sell liquors into your Bill. 
Why, Sir, it has been the struggle of the retailers of rum 
all over this country for a quarter of a century to adopt this 
license system and to get licensed. . . . This act will be 
a source of gratification in every rum shop and low doggery 
in this section." 

Mr. Fessenden. "To pay twenty dollars?" 
Mr. Wilson. "Yes, they will rejoice to pay it. Why? 
They are under the ban of the moral sentiment of the nation 
today. Now you come forward and put in the pocket of every 
liquor seller in the land a license, give him a charter to go 
forth in the community and deal out his liquors under the 
authority and sanction of the United States. This Govern- 
ment license is a certificate of character. The liquor dealer 
will so regard it, and he will be proud to shake your certificate 
in the face of an outraged moral sentiment."^^ 

This speech by Senator Wilson was in harmony with the 
views of President Lincoln, who, however, finally yielded to 
the entreaties of the Secretary of the Treasury, Hon. Salmon 
1° Congressional Globe, pp. 2376-2377. 



174 LATEST LIGHT ON ABRAHAM LINCOLN 

P. Chase, and signed the bill, saying as he did so: "I would 
rather lose my right hand than to sign a document that will 
tend to perpetuate the liquor traffic, and as soon as the 
exigencies pass away I will turn my whole attention to the 
repeal of that document." 

I was active in public life when that internal revenue 
measure was under consideration and when it became a law, 
and was connected with the government at Washington dur- 
ing the years that followed and I knew at the time, as did 
all my official and political associates, that for the reasons 
here stated Mr. Lincoln objected to the liquor tax provisions 
of that measure and signed the bill upon the promise that at 
the close of the war the law should be repealed. His attitude 
In this matter was a subject of common conversation at the 
time, and Major Merwin, who in such matters was more 
closely associated with President Lincoln than was any other 
man during all the years of the war, stated at a great con- 
vention held in Columbus, Ohio, November 10-13, 1913, that 
he had many conversations with the President relative to this 
matter and that Mr. Lincoln always spoke to him of the 
liquor tax as a bond to fasten the liquor traffic upon the nation, 
and avowed his purpose to secure the early repeal of that 
feature of the revenue law. 

Lincoln's Last Utterances 

on the liquor question came leaping from his glad heart 
on the day of his assassination, and were expressive of 
exalted purposes and confident expectations. On the after- 
noon of that day Major Merwin was a dinner guest at the 
White House. He came by invitation of the President to 
receive from him instructions respecting a very important 
mission upon which he was that night to proceed to New 
York City. After he had received his orders, and as he was 
about to depart, he was addressed by President Lincoln, who 
with exuberance of spirits said: "Merwin, we have cleaned 
up with the help of the people a colossal job. Slavery is abol- 



LINCOLN AND TEMPERANCE 175 

ished. After reconstruction the next great question will be 
the overthrow and the abolition of the liquor traffic and you 
know, Merwin, that my head and heart and hand and purse 
will go into that work. In 1842 — less than a quarter of a 
century ago — I predicted, under the influences of God's Spirit, 
that the time would come when there would be neither a slave 
nor a drunkard in the land. Thank God, I have lived to see 
one of those prophecies fulfilled. I hope to see the other 
reahzed." 

Major Merwin was so impressed by this remarkable state- 
ment that he said: "Mr. Lincoln, shall I publish this from 
you?" "Yes," was his prompt and emphatic reply, "publish 
it as wide as the daylight shines." With those words ringing 
in his ears and echoing through all his being, "like the music 
of the spheres," Major Merwin started on his important mis- 
sion for the President, and the next morning, upon his arrival 
at New York City, learned that the voice which uttered those 
words was forever hushed in death. 

"Lincolnize America" was the inspiring motto of a great 
celebration of the looth anniversary of the birth of Abraham 
Lincoln. In the direqtion of that high level the nation is 
constantly advancing, and its exalted summit will be reached 
when the people have come to understand and realize, as Lin- 
coln did, the sacred functions of civil government and have 
driven from beneath the protection of law the destructive 
liquor traffic and all other recognized and admitted evils as 
it was Lincoln's declared purpose to do. 

All who truly revere the name of Abraham Lincoln will 
aid that forward movement of the nation. All who hinder 
or oppose it will by so doing be disloyal to his memory and 
to the high ideals for which he lived and died. 



LINCOLN AND SLAVERY— OPPOSED TO 
SLAVERY 

""YT THEN the story of our great antislavery conflict 
W shall have been written, it will make one of the 
most ideal chapters in our matchless history." — 
Hon. James M. Ashley. 

No work of fiction excels in thrilling interest the history 
of Abraham Lincoln's relation to slavery. In it are found 
such contradictions blending into perfect harmony; such ad- 
vance achieved by stubborn resistance of progressive influ- 
ences; such painful reluctance in pursuing the pathway lead- 
ing up to highest service with honor and renown, and such 
hairbreadth avoidance of disastrous blunders, as equal in in- 
terest the most fascinating dreams of the imagination. And 
no portion of history is more charming or more instructive 
than that which tells of the events in which Lincoln was the 
chief and unwilling actor in accomplishing the salvation of 
his country and in becoming the world's most distinguished 
and beloved champion of human freedom. 

Seen from the viewpoint of the present time, those events 
are hard to understand. Slavery is gone and cannot now be 
seen as it appeared at that time. Conditions in all that region 
where slavery formerly existed have become so changed that 
it is impossible, by a retrospective view, to appreciate the 
violence of the struggle by which it was destroyed. All 
this, however, is better understood and realized by those who 
were active participants in the events of those memorable 
years, and others who were not may perhaps be able to imagi- 
nation to stand in the midst of the earlier scenes of that period, 

176 



LINCOLN AND SLAVERY 177 

and thereby be able to discern something of the significance 
of the events connected with Lincoln's relation to slavery as 
they then appeared. 

The Essential Character of Slavery 

which must be considered if one would have a correct under- 
standing of Lincoln's relation to that institution is nowhere 
depicted with more impressive force than in the official cor- 
respondence between the United States and Mexico in the 
negotiations for the transfer to the United States by Mexico 
of Texas and other Mexican territory. At that time, as at 
present, Mexico was regarded as far beneath the United 
States in point of civilization, enlightenment and moral stand- 
ing. And yet, when at the close of the war with Mexico, 
that nation was forced to surrender to the United States a 
large portion of her territory, the Mexican commissioner re- 
quested that in the treaty of cession there be a section pro- 
viding that slavery should never be permitted in any portion 
of that territory. In making this request the commissioner 
of that semi-civilized nation said: "If it were proposed to 
the people of the United States to part with a portion of 
their territory in order that the Inquisition should be estab- 
lished there, it would excite no stronger feelings of abhor- 
rence than those awakened in Mexico by the prospect of the 
introduction of human slavery in any territory parted with 
by her."^ 

By no great statesman or orator, or by any brilliant writer 
of history or fiction, has the heinous character of slavery been 
more faithfully portrayed than in this request and protest from 
Mexico, And the brand of barbarism thus stamped upon 
slavery was in accord with the mature judgment of all en- 
lightened people who had no financial or other interest in that 
institution. Even the decision of the Supreme Court of Great 
Britain in the Somerset case in declaring that slavery was 

^ Letter of Sept. 4th, 1847, to James Buchanan, Secretary of State, 
from Mr. Trist, U. S. Minister to Mexico. 



178 LATEST LIGHT ON ABRAHAM LINCOLN 

so inherently evil that it could not rightfully receive the pro- 
tection of civil government, coming as it did from a highly 
civihzed nation, was not as severe a characterization of slavery 
as was that piteous plea of semi-barbarous Mexico that the 
territory ceded by her to the United States should be forever 
safeguarded against that institution. 

But at the time this plea was made slavery, although thus 
branded as barbarous, was in such complete control of the 
United States, and ruled with such rigor, that in giving to 
Secretary Buchanan the foregoing information, LT. S. Min- 
ister Trist said he answered the Mexican commissioner as 
follows: "The bare mention of such a treaty is impossible. 
No American President would dare present such a treaty to 
the Senate. I assured him that if it were in their power to 
offer me the whole territory described in our project, increased 
tenfold in value, and in addition covered a foot thick with 
pure gold, on the single condition that slavery should be 
excluded therefrom, I could not entertain the offer for a 
moment, nor even think of communicating it to Washington." 

To the present generation this reads like extravagant 
fiction. It is difficult to realize that there ever was a time 
when the United States clung with such tenacity as is shown 
by this correspondence to an institution so objectionable upon 
humanitarian grounds to a people like the Mexicans of that 
period. But the foregoing quotations from official records 
made little impression upon the public mind, and were soon 
forgotten. This humiliating record, however, must be 
charged to the degrading influence of slavery and not to any 
natural depravity of the people who were identified with that 
institution. No higher qualities of mind and heart were 
ever possessed by any people than those which by an honorable 
ancestry were transmitted to the inhabitants of the slave- 
holding portions of the United States. The crossing of an- 
cestral lines, the merging of distinctive and divergent charac- 
teristics, the mingling of the blood of patrician and puritan, 
the cultivation of the spirit of chivalry and the development 



LINCOLN AND SLAVERY 179 

of Christian patriotism, combined to produce in that sunny 
Southland a people naturally high-minded and purposeful. 

But the head that rested in the lap of the Delilah of ease 
and luxury was shorn of the locks of its strength, and slavery 
conspired with the Philistines of avarice and pride to pluck 
out the eyes of this Samson of the new world. Blinded to 
the high ideals of their noble forebears those chosen custodians 
of freedom became the proponents of slavery, and the hand 
that should have wielded the sword of chivalry in defense 
of the weak, wielded the lash of the taskmaster and riveted 
more tightly upon the limbs of men made in the image of 
God the galling fetters of cruel bondage. The wealth that 
should have sent the gospel to the heathen was expended in 
equipping vessels to plow the seas to capture them for slaves. 
This traffic attained such proportions "that not less than half 
a million slaves were imported direct from Africa and sold 
in this country after the slave trade had been declared piracy 
by law and by treaty with all civilized nations." And to such 
an extent did the virus of avarice enter into cavalier blood 
that during all the years of that inhuman piracy "but one 
slave pirate was ever convicted and hanged in the United 
States." The record runs that on February 28th, 1862, 
nearly one year after Lincoln's first inauguration as President, 
Captain Nathaniel Gordon was executed in New York City, 
the first and only case of the conviction and punishment of 
one engaged in the African slave trade. 

In November, 1853, the Southern Standard remarked: 
"We can not only preserve domestic servitude, but can defy 
the power of the world. With firmness and judgment we 
can open up the African Slave immigration again, and people 
this noble region of the tropics." 

In 1857, only three years before Lincoln was elected Pres- 
ident, DeBeau's Southern Reviezv stated "that forty slavers 
were annually fitted out in the ports of New York and the 
east, and that the traffic yielded their owners an annual net 
profit of seventeen million dollars." This statement shows 



i8o LATEST LIGHT ON ABRAHAM LINCOLN 

at once the motive for which slavery and the slave trade were 
clung to with such tenacity, and the depth of infamy to which 
a great wrong like slavery will inevitably sink even the best 
people if they become identified with it. 

"The New York Evening Post published a list of names 
of 85 vessels, fitted out in the port of New York between 
the first of February, 1859, and the 15th of July, i860, for 
the African Slave trade. 

"The New York Leader, at that time a Tammany paper, 
asserted 'that an average of two vessels each week cleared out 
of our harbor bound for Africa and a human cargo.' 

"The New York World declared that 'from thirty to sixty 
thousand slaves a year, under the American flag, are taken 
from Africa, by vessels from the single port of New York,' 

"A yacht called the Wanderer ran into a harbor near 
Brunswick, Georgia, in broad daylight, in December, 1858, 
and landed a human cargo of some three hundred or more 
slaves direct from Africa. This fact was duly chronicled 
at the time in the Southern newspapers, and some of the blacks 
were dressed up in flaming toggery and driven in carriages 
through the public streets, as a menace and defiance to the 
National Government."" 

Such was the monster which confronted Lincoln at every 
step, and crouched for deadly combat when he crossed the 
threshold of the White House. 

According to his unequivocal declarations, Mr. Lincoln 
during all his life was 

Strongly Opposed to Slavery 

On the 4th of April, 1864, during the fourth year of his 
Presidency and while his enemies were furiously opposing his 
renomination, in a letter to A. G. Hodges he stated that he 
was "naturally antislavery," and that he could not remember 

2 Address of Hon. J. AI. Ashley, Toledo, Ohio, June 2nd, 1890, pp. 
18-19. 



LINCOLN AND SLAVERY i8i 

the time when he did not "think and feel" that slavery was 
wrong. These statements are in full accord with the record 
of his life. By no word nor act of which we have any 
knowledge did he ever contradict or to any degree weaken 
the meaning or force of those very strong declarations against 
slavery. His first known utterance upon the subject still 
quivers like forked lightning upon the horizon of that day 
in 1 83 1, when he was but twenty-two years old, and stood 
transfixed by the horrors of a slave auction in the city of 
New Orleans. 

On the 3rd of March, 1837, when Lincoln was twenty- 
eight years old and a member of the Illinois Assembly, he 
joined with Dan Stone, a fellow member, in a protest against 
some pro-slavery resolutions which had recently been adopted 
by that body. In that protest it is declared "that the institu- 
tion of slavery is founded on injustice and bad policy."^ 

In the opinion of W. E. Curtis, as stated by Nicolay and 
Hay, this protest was "the first formal declaration against the 
system of slavery that was ever made in any legislative body 
in the United States, at least west of the Hudson River." * 

This statement by Mr. Curtis is important in that it shows 
Mr. Lincoln to be a leader rather than one who followed in 
the wake of others. Slavery was not at that time an issue 
before the people, and had been forced upon his attention 
by the action of the Assembly of which he was a member 
in its denunciation of antislavery organizations and teachings. 
His sense of honor required him to express his convictions 
relative to the subject and, notwithstanding his youth and 
lack of experience, he did so by the unusual method of a 
written protest entered upon the journal of the Assembly, 
and thus made a matter of public record. From the hour 
he stood before the auction block at New Orleans until he 
delivered his second inaugural address, Mr. Lincoln's opinion 
of the character of slavery underwent no essential change. 

3 Complete Works of Abraham Lincoln, Vol. I., p. 51. 

4 Ibid., p. 53. 



i82 LATEST LIGHT ON ABRAHAM LINCOLN 

There were .many changes in his conviction respecting methods 
of deahng with slavery, but there was no retreat from the 
decision that slavery was wrong; and with him that verdict 
could never be reversed. 

Wesley's characterization of slavery as "the sum of all 
villainies" was the keynote of the antislavery movement until 
Lincoln, in his letter of April 4th, 1864, to A. G. Hodges, 
said: "If slavery is not wrong nothing is wrong." When 
that famous aphorism rang out upon the air the thinking 
world paused and seemed to look up in expectation of behold- 
ing an angelic figure sweeping through the heavens with a 
flaming sword ready to execute divine judgments. Instantly 
hosts of patriots joined in the new inspiring battle-cry and 
shouted Lincoln's burning words beside the blazing watch- 
fires of "a hundred circling camps," and throughout all the 
loyal regions of the nation. By the anxious members of the 
Union Soldier's family at their evening hour of prayer, by the 
ministers of God in the sanctuary of worship, in political 
meetings of the Union party, in caucuses and conventions 
throughout the loyal states; in lyceum lectures and in the 
debates in Congress, those words of Lincoln were repeated 
until they became a new confession of religio-political faith 
for the nation. 

My participation in the political struggles of those mo- 
mentous months enabled me to realize something of the tre- 
mendous potency of that unequivocal characterization of an 
institution which at that time was filling the land with anguish 
and woe. At close range I saw the patriot's eye shine with 
a brighter luster as he read or listened to those words. I 
saw the marching legions close their ranks because of the 
assurance that the period of vacillation and uncertainty was 
forever passed and that slavery was doomed to swift and 
certain destruction. 

I heard "The Battle-cry of Freedom" sung with increased 
fervor after that declaration of Lincoln was published 
throughout the nation; a declaration which seemed to have 



LINCOLN AND SLAVERY 183 

been written by a celestial messenger in letters of living light 
upon the dark clouds that hung above the field of battle. 

Some writers who were not in touch with the loyal masses 
during those years, as it was my great privilege constantly to 
be, have failed to note the tremendous influence upon the 
people of that very striking statement of President Lincoln 
respecting the character of slavery ; and I have failed to find 
in the history of those times any mention of the prominence 
given to it in the final debates in Congress upon the consti- 
tutional amendment abolishing slavery. Those debates were 
of greater strength and spirit than were the discussions of 
that measure in the senate and house of representatives dur- 
ing the preceding session of Congress. My own literary 
work in connection with those final debates began with the 
critical review of the first speech upon that measure, pre- 
vious to its delivery in the House. I approached that work 
with mind alert and nerves at high tension, for I believed, 
as did the distinguished author of that speech, that on the 
final vote the amendment would be adopted. As I sat at night 
alone perusing the manuscript my blood tingled when glanc- 
ing at the page before me I discovered that the first sentence 
was President's Lincoln's characterization of slavery; and as 
I proceeded with the work of examination I discovered that 
the distinguishing features of that able speech were cast in 
the mold of that famous saying. On the 6th of January, 
1865, after preliminary motions had been acted upon, 
Speaker Colfax announced that the question before the house 
was the reconsideration of the vote at the previous session 
on the constitutional amendment, and that the gentleman from 
Ohio (Ashley) had the floor. The solemn silence which fell 
upon the audience was broken by the sound of a strong, clear 
voice, saying, "Mr. Speaker, 'If slavery is not wrong, nothing 
is wrong.' Thus simply and truthfully hath spoken our 
worthy Chief Magistrate." Instantly the mighty struggle 
against slavery was lifted to a high moral plane upon which 
it continued to the end. 



i84 LATEST LIGHT ON ABRAHAM LINCOLN 

In the Hodges letter Mr. Lincoln states that the views 
of slavery which he expressed in that famous aphorism were 
such as he had held during his entire life. His speeches and 
letters in which he refers to that subject bear witness to the 
correctness of that statement. At the time of the birth of 
the republican party in Illinois, on the 29th of May, 1856, 
in the first state convention of that party, Mr. Lincoln said: 
"The battle of freedom is to be fought out on principle. 
Slavery is a violation of the eternal right. We have tem- 
porized with it from the necessities of our condition, but 
as sure as God reigns and school children read, that black 
foul lie can never be consecrated into God's hallowed truth. 
. . . Can we as Christian men, and strong and free our- 
selves, wield the sledge or hold the iron Vi-hich is to manacle 
anew an already oppressed race? 'Woe unto them,' it is 
written, 'that decree unrighteous decrees and that write griev- 
ousness which they have prescribed.' 

"Those who deny freedom to others deserve it not them- 
selves, and, under the rule of a just God, cannot long retain 
it." ' 

It was a very unusual expression of his dislike for 
slavery, coupled with his unwillingness to interfere with it 
where it constitutionally existed, which led him in the Bloom- 
ington speech to say: "Let us draw a cordon, so to speak, 
around the slave states and the hateful institution, like a rep- 
tile poisoning itself, will perish by its own infamy." Federal 
Edition, The Works of Abraham Lincoln, Vol. II., p. 273. 

Similar in character were the declarations of Mr. Lincoln 
respecting slavery in his debates with Douglas and in his 
speeches and letters at that time. With characteristic candor 
he expressed his appreciation of the difficulties encountered 
by our fathers in dealing with slavery and his sympathy with 
the people who, by inheritance, came into the possession of 
property in slaves, but for slavery itself he had no words of 

s Lincoln, the Citizen, p. 327, and Federal Edition, Works of Abraham 
Lincoln, Vol. IL, pp. 267-270. 



LINCOLN AND SLAVERY 185 

sympathy or palliation. In language as strong as he could 
command, upon all suitable occasions, he declared slavery 
to be morally and unquestionably wrong. 

Equally pronounced and unyielding was Mr. Lincoln in the 
zeal and determination with which to the very limit of rightful 
conservatism 

He Protected Slavery 

It was sometimes difficult to reconcile his well-known 
hostility to slavery with his vigilance in shielding that insti- 
tution from the assaults of its enemies. But with his intense 
abhorrence of slavery there was the most profound and con- 
scientious reverence for civil government and for the consti- 
tution and laws of the nation. Mr. Lincoln was tempera- 
mentally conservative and his native gifts of reverence and 
religious regard for obligation were by his attitudes and 
activities developed into great strength and firmness. On the 
27th of January, 1837, when he was only twenty-eight years 
old, in a lyceum address at Springfield, Illinois, he said: 

"Let every American, every lover of liberty, every well- 
wisher to his posterity swear by the blood of the Revolution 
never to violate in the least particular the laws of the country, 
and never to tolerate their violation by others. As the patriots 
of seventy-six did to the support of the Declaration of Indepen- 
dence, so to the support of the constitution and laws let every 
American pledge his life, his property, and his sacred honor — 
let every man remember that to violate the law is to trample on 
the blood of his father, and to tear the charter of his own and 
his children's liberty. Let reverence for the laws be breathed 
by every American mother to the lisping babe that prattles 
on her lap; let it be taught in schools, in seminaries, and in 
colleges ; let it be written in primers, spelling-books, and in al- 
manacs; let it be preached from the pulpit, proclaimed in 
legislative halls, and enforced in courts of justice. And, °n 
short, let it become the political religion of the nation; and 



i86 LATEST LIGHT ON ABRAHAM LINCOLN 

let the old and the young, the rich and the poor, the grave 
and the gay of all sexes and tongues and colors and conditions, 
sacrifice unceasingly upon its altars." * 

At the time of this address Mr. Lincoln was a member of 
the Illinois House of Representatives, and only a few days 
later he caused to be spread upon the journal of that body 
the famous Lincoln-Stone Protest already referred to, in which 
he was careful to unite with the declaration against slavery 
the statement of belief that Congress had under the consti- 
tution, "no power to interfere with slavery in the different 
states;" and that the assertion of its power to abolish slavery 
in the District of Columbia was connected with the proviso 
that only "at the request of the people of that district" should 
that power be exercised. Thus very early in his public career 
did Mr. Lincoln show evidence of that temperamental con- 
servatism which was so marked a feature of him during his 
Presidency. 

During the period of Mr. Lincoln's retirement from public 
life, from 1848 to 1854, there was great growth of antislavery 
sentiment throughout the free states, and when the repeal of 
the Missouri Compromise in 1854 brought him into the arena, 
hostility to slavery was at a white heat and extreme methods 
of dealing with that institution were being widely and ably 
advocated. But Mr. Lincoln remained unyielding in his op- 
position to any and all interference with slavery in the states 
where it existed either by the people of other states or by the 
general government. 

This is very remarkable in view of the furious battle in 
which he was at that time engaged to prevent the extension 
of slavery In territory consecrated forever to freedom by laws 
as binding, and covenants as sacred as it was possible for man 
to make. By a wide and plentiful distribution of literature 
and by stirring appeals from the platform and pulpit, there 
had been kindled fires of antagonism to slavery which sprang 
into sweeping flames when the hand of violence was laid upon 

8 Complete Works of Abraham Lincoln, Vol. I., pp. 42-3. 



LINCOLN AND SLAVERY 187 

the Missouri Compromise and Kansas and Nebraska were open 
to the entrance of slavery. It is no wonder that in the wild 
tumult of that hour some of the champions of freedom advo- 
cated a resort to extreme measures of resistance and retalia- 
tion, and it is passing strange that Mr. Lincoln was not swayed 
in the slightest degree by the fierce storms of excitement and 
passion that swept over the nation and arose to its greatest 
violence in Illinois and other states adjacent to the territory 
into which slavery was seeking to enter. 

With seeming reluctance, yet without hesitation, Mr. Lin- 
coln turned away from his coveted and congenial retirement 
and joined in the movement against the extension of slavery. 
An unwonted luster shone in his eye and his wonderful voice 
took on new qualities of strength and expression. With char- 
acteristic calmness and restraint he confronted Douglas at 
Chicago, when the latter returned from Washington, and a 
few days later, on the i6th of October, 1854, at Peoria, he 
delivered a speech of marvelous power, which immediately 
placed him at the forefront of the antislavery movement in 
Illinois and made him one of its leaders in the nation. In 
that Peoria speech Mr. Lincoln gave the most graphic and 
realistic picture anywhere to be found of the battles against 
the extension of slavery during the early autumn months of 
that memorable year. In reply to the claims of Douglas that 
there was not perfect agreement among the forces that were 
opposing him, Mr. Lincoln said: "He (Douglas) should re- 
member that he took us by surprise — astounded us by this 
measure. We were thunderstruck and stunned, and we reeled 
and fell in utter confusion. But we rose, each fighting, grasping 
whatever he could first reach — a scythe, a pitchfork, a chop- 
ping ax, or a butcher's cleaver. We struck in the direction 
of the sound, and we were rapidly closing in upon him. He 
must not think to divert us from our purpose by showing us 
that our drill, our dress, and our weapons are not entirely 
perfect and uniform. When the storm shall be past he shall 



i88 LATEST LIGHT ON ABRAHAM LINCOLN 

find us still Americans, no less devoted to the continued union 
and prosperity of the country than heretofore." ^ 

In all of this startling description of those early battles 
is seen Mr. Lincoln's rare fitness for leadership in a great 
moral and civic struggle. Called from his repose as by a 
fire-bell in the night, and rushing into the fierce conflict he did 
not, for a moment, lose his mental poise nor turn his eyes 
from the pole star of national unity and constitutional obli- 
gation. In the midst of the wild excitement and mingling 
with the conflicting and confusing calls to action which rang 
out upon the air, his familiar voice was heard saying: "When 
they remind us of their constitutional rights, I acknowledge 
them — not grudgingly, but fully and fairly ; and I would give 
them any legislation for the reclaiming of their fugitives which 
should not in its stringency be more likely to carry a free 
man into slavery than our ordinary criminal laws are to hang 
an innocent one." ^ 

At another point in that Peoria speech, after explaining 
the arrangement by which a white man in a slave state had 
twice as much influence in the government as did a white man 
in a free state, he said: "Now all this is manifestly unfair; 
yet I do not mention it to complain of it, in so far as it is 
already settled. It is in the Constitution, and I do not for 
that cause, or any other cause, propose to destroy, or alter, 
or disregard the Constitution. I stand to it, fairly, fully 
and firmly." ° 

On the 24th of August, 1855, in a letter to his close friend, 
Joshua F. Speed, whose views were not at that time in accord 
with Mr. Lincoln, he said: "You ought rather to appreciate 
how much the great body of the Northern people do crucify 
their feelings, in order to maintain their loyalty to the Con- 
stitution and the Union." ^° 

' Complete Works of Abraham Lincoln, Vol. II., p. 260. 
8 Ibid., p. 207. 
•Ibid., pp. 234-235. 
10 Ibid., p. 282. 



LINCOLN AND SLAVERY 189 

On the 29th of May, 1856, in Bloomington, Illinois, at the 
first republican state convention, Mr. Lincoln delivered one 
of the ablest and most immediately effective speeches of his 
life, in which, after denouncing slavery in as strong terms as 
he ever employed, he said: "Let us revere the Declaration of 
Independence. Let us continue to obey the Constitution and 
laws. Let us keep step with the music of the Union. In 
seeking to attain these results — so indispensable if the liberty 
which is our pride and boast shall endure — we will be loyal 
to the Constitution and to the 'Flag of our Union,' no matter 
what our grievance." ^^ 

In 1858, in his debates with Douglas, and in all his speeches 
during that campaign for the senate, Mr. Lincoln constantly 
maintained the attitude of loyalty to the national govern- 
ment and obedience to its Constitution and laws. Again and 
again, and in a great variety of ways, during that year, as at 
all times, he declared his unyielding opposition to all inter- 
ference with slavery and his purpose to aid in safeguarding 
that institution in the states where it then existed. He did 
this without any retraction or modification of his repeated, un- 
equivocal declarations that slavery was a great wrong and 
should be abolished or prohibited "wherever our votes can 
rightfully reach it." But he never forgot that slavery could 
not be rightfully reached in states where it existed, by any 
act of the General Government, nor by the people in other 
states, and he kept that fact before the people quite as promi- 
nently as he did his conviction that slavery was wrong. 

On February 27th, i860, in his Cooper Institute speech, 
after proving conclusively that "our fathers who framed the 
government" understood that the Constitution conferred upon 
Congress full authority and power to prevent the extension 
of slavery into the territories of the United States, he said: 
"As those fathers marked it, so let it again be marked, as 
an evil not to be extended but to be tolerated and protected 

^1 Federal Edition, Works of Abraham Lincoln, Vol. II., pp. 273, 
274. 275. 



190 LATEST LIGHT ON ABRAHAM LINCOLN 

only because and so far as its actual presence among us 
makes that toleration a necessity. Let all the guarantees 
those fathers gave it be not grudgingly but fully and fairly 
maintained. . . . Wrong as we think slavery is we can 
yet afford to let it alone where it is, because that much is 
due to the necessity arising from its actual presence in the 
nation." ^^ 

On the 6th of March, i860, eight days after the Cooper 
Institute address was delivered, in a speech at New Haven, 
Connecticut, he said: "The other policy is one that squares 
with the idea that slavery is wrong, and it consists in doing 
everything that we ought to do if it Is wrong. Now, I don't 
wish to be misunderstood, nor to leave a gap down to be mis- 
represented, even. I don't mean that we ought to attack it 
where it exists. To me it seems that if we were to form gov- 
ernment anew, in view of the actual presence of slavery, we 
should find it necessary to frame just such a government as 
our fathers did; giving to the slaveholder the entire control 
where the system was established, while we possess the power 
to restrain it from going outside those limits. From the 
necessities of the case we should be compelled to form just 
such a government as our blessed fathers gave us ; and surely 
if they have so made it, that adds another reason why v/e 
should let slavery alone where it exists," ^^ 

Thus Mr. Lincoln came to the Presidential office fully and 
unequivocally committed to the protection of slavery as re- 
quired by the Constitution of the United States. And into 
that great office with all its authority and power he carried 
a fixed purpose to be faithful and true to all the declarations 
he had made respecting the constitutional rights of slavery. 

On the 4th of March, 1 861, in 

12 Complete Works of Abraham Lincoln, Vol. V., pp. 309-327- 

13 Ibid., p. 347. 



LINCOLN AND SLAVERY 191 

His First Inaugural Address, 

he said: "Apprehension seems to exist among the people of 
the Southern States that by the accession of a repubHcan ad- 
ministration their property and their peace and personal 
security are to be endangered. There has never been any 
reasonable cause for such apprehension. Indeed, the most 
ample evidence to the contrary has all the while existed and 
been open to their inspection. It is found in nearly all the 
published speeches of him who now addresses you. I do 
but quote from one of those speeches when I declare that 
'I have no purpose, directly or indirectly, to interfere with 
the institution of slavery in the States where it exists. I 
believe I have no lawful right to do so, and I have no inclina- 
tion to do so.' Those who have nominated and elected me 
did so with full knowledge that I had made this and many 
similar declarations, and had never recanted them.' . . . 
I now reiterate these sentiments; and, in doing so, I only 
press upon the public attention the most conclusive evidence 
of which the case is susceptible, that the property, peace and 
security of no section are to be in any wise endangered by 
the now incoming administration. . . . 

"I take the official oath today with no mental reservations, 
and with no purpose to construe the Constitution or laws by 
any hypercritical rules. . . . 

"In your hands, my dissatisfied fellow countrymen, and 
not In mine, is the momentous issue of civil war. The gov- 
ernment will not assail you. You can have no conflict with- 
out being yourselves the aggressors. You have no oath regis- 
tered in heaven to destroy the government, while I shall have 
the most solemn one to 'preserve, protect and defend it.' " " 

In a still more striking and impressive manner did Mr. 

Lincoln in that Inaugural Address state his conservative views 

and purposes respecting slavery by approving of the following 

Constitutional amendment : "No amendment shall be made to 

^* Complete Works of Abraham Lincoln, Vol. VI., pp. 169-185. 



192 LATEST LIGHT ON ABRAHAM LINCOLN 

the Constitution which will authorize or give to Congress 
the power to abolish or interfere within any State with the 
domestic institutions thereof, including that of persons held 
to labor or service by the laws of said State." ^^ 

This amendment was prepared and introduced by Hon. 
Thoi-nas Corwin of Ohio, chairman of the committee of thirty- 
three, and had passed both houses of Congress by substantial 
majorities and was signed by President Buchanan. Referring 
to that constitutional amendment, which at the time required 
only the approval of three- fourths of the states to become a 
part of the national Constitution, Mr. Lincoln in his inaugural 
address said: "Holding such a provision to now be amply 
Constitutional law, I have no objection to its being made 
express and irrevocable." 

Had that amendment become a part of the national Con- 
stitution it would have made it forever impossible to abolish 
slavery by peaceable and constitutional methods. Yet, it was 
approved by President Lincoln and by his administration, 
through Secretary Seward it was sent out to the several 
states for their approval, and had it been accepted by the 
South it would undoubtedly have received the approval of 
the requisite three-fourths of the states and become a part 
of the fundamental law of the land. From that dire calamity 
the nation was saved by the mad assault upon Fort Sumter 
and the cruel Civil War. 

15 Nicolay and Hay, Abraham Lincoln, A History, Vol. X., p. 90. 



VI 
EMANCIPATION CONSIDERED 

THE civilized world has come to recognize Abraham 
Lincoln as the divinely chosen agent for the destruc- 
tion of slavery. This he accomplished by the au- 
thority and power of the Presidential office. But when he 
assumed the duties of that exalted station he was bound by 
an imperious sense of duty and by solemn promises not to 
interfere with that institution in the states where it then 
existed. That Mr. Lincoln intended faithfully and fully to 
keep his promises respecting slavery is beyond question. That 
he hoped to save the nation without interfering with slavery 
is also certain. That he earnestly and perseveringly en- 
deavored to accomplish both of these results is now a matter 
of history. In so doing it became necessary for him to inter- 
pose his great authority and power as President to protect 
slavery from the assaults of his subordinates. 

For a time this did not become necessary. In his call 
for a special session of Congress to meet on the Fourth of 
July, 1 86 1, and in his message to that body, he made no ref- 
erence to slavery and no action of Congress during that ses- 
sion was at variance with his declared purposes respecting that 
institution. Both branches of Congress were dominated by 
a spirit of exalted patriotism, all the acts of the President 
in the emergency brought on by the rebellion were approved 
and made legal, and even in excess of his requests provisions 
for the vigorous prosecution of the war were enthusiastically 
made. As the location and movements of the Union army 
were chiefly in the states were slavery existed, it was impos- 
sible to ignore that institution, but everything proceeded as 
fully as possible in harmony with the President's well-known 
policy. This continued without interruption for nearly five 

193 



194 LATEST LIGHT ON ABRAHAM LINCOLN 

months, when on the 30th of August, 1861, General John 
C. Fremont, in command of the department of Missouri, 
startled the nation, and attracted the attention of the world 
by issuing a proclamation in which he declared martial law 
and emancipation in all the state of Missouri. To make effect- 
ive this proclamation. General Fremont convened a military 
commission to hear evidence and proceeded to issue deeds of 
manumission to persons held in slavery under the laws of the 
state. This proclamation produced a profound impression in 
all the loyal states. 

General Fremont was held in very high esteem by the 
rank and file of the republican party throughout the nation. 
His early achievements in exploring a route for a transcon- 
tinental railroad and his gallant bearing as the republican 
candidate for President in 1856, caused him to be greatly 
admired by those who were proud to march under his banner 
during that memorable Presidential campaign. His appoint- 
ment as a Major-General at the beginning of the war and 
his assignment to an important military command were hailed 
with a delight which burst into a flame of enthusiasm when 
his emancipation proclamation was published. But his action 
in this matter met the prompt and emphatic disapproval of 
the conservative element among the supporters of the Govern- 
ment and awakened serious apprehensions respecting its influ- 
ence in the border states where loyalty to the Union seemed 
to depend upon the National Government maintaining its atti- 
tude of non-interference with slavery. 

Having been of the number of enthusiastic young repub- 
licans who marched in the Fremont processions in 1856, and 
being an ardent abolitionist and therefore not fully satisfied 
with President Lincoln's policy respecting slavery, I hailed the 
Fremont proclamation with delight as the beginning of the 
end of slavery. And I am now making this historical record 
of the events connected with that proclamation by General 
Fremont as one who at the time was ardently attached to him 
and fully in sympathy with that movement against slavery. 



EMANCIPATION CONSIDERED 195 

General Fremont's great popularity and the intensity of anti- 
slavery sentiment in the loyal states combined to make it 
very difficult for President Lincoln to bring the General's 
action in this matter into conformity with law and with the 
policy he was pursuing toward slavery without causing serious 
division among Union people. Conditions at the time in Gen- 
eral Fremont's department were far from harmonious and 
some who had been and were opposed to his course in other 
matters were not backward in claiming that the proclamation 
was intended for political rather than military results. 

The controversy in General Fremont's department became 
very bitter and, although at first local, it grew to national 
dimensions and importance, by drawing into its contentions 
several prominent and distinguished men, including the Blairs, 
one of whom was a member of President Lincoln's Cabinet. 
This added to the difficulties and dangers encountered by the 
President in dealing with General Fremont's interference with 
slavery. But never did he seem to have been influenced in 
the least by the danger of incurring popular displeasure in 
disapproving of General Fremont's course, which he promptly 
did with that rare wisdom and tact that always characterized 
his treatment of peculiarly delicate and complicated questions. 

On the 2nd of September, 1862, he sent to General Fre- 
mont by special messenger a carefully written letter, fragrant 
with the spirit of considerate kindness and gentle firmness. 
Respecting the portion of the proclamation that ordered the 
shooting of disloyal people found with arms in their hands. 
President Lincoln said: ''Should you shoot a man, according 
to the proclamation, the Confederates would very certainly 
shoot our best men in their hands in retaliation ; and so man 
for man indefinitely. It is, therefore, my order that you allow 
no man to be shot under the proclamation without first having 
my approbation or consent."^ 

With admirable frankness and candor Mr. Lincoln in that 
letter to General Fremont expressed his conviction that the 
1 Nicolay and Hay, Abraham Lincoln, A History, Vol. IV., p. 418. 



196 LATEST LIGHT ON ABRAHAM LINCOLN 

portion of the proclamation that referred "to the confiscation 
of property and the liberating of slaves" would alarm Southern 
Union men and turn them against the government. This he 
feared would ruin the prospect of holding Kentucky loyal 
to the Union. "Allow me, therefore," he added, "to ask that 
you will as of your own motion, modify that paragraph so 
as to conform to the first and fourth sections of the Act of 
Congress entitled 'An Act to Confiscate property used for 
insurrectory purposes.' " 

To this letter of wondrous tact and kindliness General 
Fremont, on the 8th of September, 1861, replied at length 
affirming his conviction that his proclamation was wise and 
would prove effective for the Union cause, and asking the 
President to assume responsibility for its modification if he 
still thought such action should be taken. This was a most 
remarkable attitude for an American General to assume 
toward the President, the Commander in Chief of the Armies 
of the nation; but Mr. Lincoln was too great to be disturbed 
by the affair and "cheerfully," as he said, ordered the proc- 
lamation to be modified as suggested by him. 

General Fremont's letter of September 8th to the Presi- 
dent was by him sent to Mr. Lincoln by the hand of his wife, 
the brilliant daughter of the great Missouri senator, Thomas 
H. Benton, and the beloved "Jessie Benton Fremont" — whose 
name rang out upon the air as a republican battle-cry during 
the Presidential campaign of 1856, and was afterwards re- 
peated as a synonym of exalted womanhood and courageous 
enterprise and adventure. Intent upon her mission to pre- 
vent the modification of her husband's proclamation, and to 
strengthen him with the President in the unfortunate contro- 
versy with his subordinates, she reached Washington at night 
and sought an immediate interview with the latter, calling him 
from his bed at midnight and pressing her accusations and 
demands so vigorously that in his account of the affair Mr. 
Lincoln said: "She taxed me so violently with many things 
that I had to exercise all the awkward tact that I have to 



EMANCIPATION CONSIDERED 197 

avoid quarreling with her. . . . She more than once inti- 
mated that if General Fremont should decide to try conclu- 
sions with me he could set up for himself."^ 

This incident illustrates the severity of the storm encoun- 
tered by President Lincoln in his efforts to modify General 
Fremont's proclamation and to arrest proceedings under it so 
as to prevent the harmful results he believed it would cause. 
The President's apprehensions and his course in this matter 
are fully justified by conditions as we know them to have 
existed at that time. 

The war had then been in progress more than four months 
and states permitting slavery had joined the rebellion one 
after another until only the border states were left undecided 
as to whether they would remain in the Union or unite with 
the Confederacy. President Lincoln was watching the pro- 
ceedings with painful solicitude, fully convinced that the fate 
of the nation depended upon the decision of those border 
states and that the decision of Kentucky would determine 
whether the other border states would decide for or against 
the Union. He was very careful not to declare his convic- 
tions respecting these matters. He remained outwardly opti- 
mistic and studiously refrained from disclosing the appalling 
perils of the nation. But while thus concealing his appre- 
hensions he was constant and untiring in his efforts to win 
the loyalty of the border states. He endured severe criticism 
for this rather than incur the risk of injuring the Union cause 
by an explanation of his course, even although it might be 
satisfactory to the watchful and anxious people. But the 
Fremont affair compelled him to speak, not to the public 
but to a close personal friend, and his disclosures to that friend 
leave nothing to be desired either in the course he pursued 
or the motives by which he was influenced. 

The intimate friend to whom Mr. Lincoln made those dis- 
closures was United States Senator O. H. Browning of 
Illinois, who, on the 17th of September, 1861, had in a letter 
2 Nicolay and Hay, Abraham Lincoln, A History, Vol. IV., p. 415. 



198 LATEST LIGHT ON ABRAHAIM LINCOLN 

to President Lincoln severely criticised his disapproval of 
General Fremont's proclamation. On the 22nd of September, 
1 86 1 — just one year previous to the issuing by President Lin- 
coln of the preliminary Emancipation Proclamation — Mr. 
Lincoln replied to Senator Browning's criticisms in a letter 
marked "Private and Confidential," in which he said: "I think 
to lose Kentucky is nearly the same as to lose the w^hole 
game. Kentucky gone, we cannot hold Missouri, nor, as I 
think, Maryland. These all against us, and the job on our 
hands is too large for us. We would as well consent to sepa- 
ration at once, including the surrender of this capital."^ 

To read this disclosure of the nation's peril, even at this 
distant day, is like witnessing a loved one's hairbreadth 
escape from seemingly unavoidable disaster. We are filled 
with dismay, and shrink back as we are made to realize how 
very near we then came to a catastrophe more dreadful than 
any the world has ever known. And only in strict confidence 
and because he deemed it necessary did President Lincoln 
make knovv^n to his trusted, though at the time misguided 
friend, the perilous conditions through which the nation was 
then passing. This letter to Senator Browning was not at 
the time made public, and not until long after the dangers 
it revealed had passed did the people learn that at that hour 
the nation's fate was trembling in the balance. 

Suddenly the storm broke. While President Lincoln was 
exerting every influence in his power to cause the Kentucky 
legislature, then in session, to take action against secession 
and in favor of the Union, and when the nation's fate de- 
pended upon the Government maintaining its attitude of non- 
interference with slavery, the Fremont proclamation of 
emancipation was issued and made public. We are not left 
in uncertainty as to the influence of that proclamation in the 
border states, for President Lincoln in his letter to Senator 
Browning, from which I have already quoted, in referring to 
this matter, pathetically writes: "The Kentucky legislature 
3 Nicolay and Hay, Abraham Lincoln, A History, Vol. IV., p. 422. 



EMANCIPATION CONSIDERED 199 

would not budge till that proclamation was modified ; and 
General Anderson telegraphed me that on the news of Gen- 
eral Fremont having actually issued deeds of manumission, 
a whole company of our volunteers threw down their arms and 
disbanded. I was so assured as to think it probable that the 
very arms we had furnished Kentucky would be turned against 
us."* 

Before President Lincoln knew of the unfavorable action 
of the Kentucky legislature in his private letter to General 
Fremont, already quoted, he expressed his fears that the proc- 
lamation would be harmful to the Union cause among "our 
Southern Union friends" and ruinous to the Union cause in 
Kentucky. 

A more unfortunate time for an antislavery movement 
could not possibly have been chosen than that selected by 
General Fremont for his proclamation of state-wide martial 
law and military emancipation. Conditions in the border 
states were made peculiarly unfavorable to its acceptance be- 
cause of the tremendous efforts of the Confederate leaders 
to enlist those states in the rebellion. No less eager was Pres- 
ident Lincoln to hold Kentucky to her allegiance to the Union 
than was Jefferson Davis to win that state to the Confederacy. 
There were certain leading men in Kentucky who, at that time, 
were believed to be able to control the action of the state 
respecting the Rebellion. One man — a journalist of excep- 
tional ability — was. believed to have sufficient influence to 
swing the state as he might choose to the support of the 
Federal Government or to the Confederacy. To enlist that 
great journalist on the side of the rebellion was the chief aim 
and effort of the Confederate leaders. Fifty thousand dollars 
in gold was the sum employed to carry out the scheme. Ac- 
cording to autograph letters now before me, some written 
by the editor in question, and others by prominent Confed- 
erates, that sum was invested to purchase the influence which 
it was believed would cause Kentucky to renounce her alle- 
^Nicolay and Hay, Abraham Lincoln, A History, Vol. IV., p. 422. 



200 LATEST LIGHT ON ABRAHAM LINCOLN 

giance to the Union and join the Confederacy. The arrange- 
ments to accomplish that result were consummated and the 
time fixed for the carrying out of the agreement when coun- 
teracting influences suddenly and unexpectedly intervened and 
the whole scheme was brought to a disastrous failure. Ken- 
tucky declared her loyalty to the Government and aided very 
materially in the war for the Government's preservation. The 
correspondence shows that the fifty thousand dollar purchase 
price, although paid over, was not receipted for nor returned, 
and the goods were not delivered. Names and dates for all 
this could be easily given, but it would serve no good purpose. 
What I have here stated is given as an illustration of con- 
ditions as they existed at the time the Fremont proclamation 
was issued. These incidents also aid in explaining Lincoln's 
anxiety and care not to offend public sentiment in Kentucky, 
if it could possibly be avoided. To many loyal people his 
seemingly excessive solicitude to secure and hold the favor 
of that state was a mystery, and some were uncharitable 
enough to attribute it to partiality for it as his native state. 
But his letter to Senator Browning and the incident relating 
to the Kentucky journalist make it all plain, and show that 
in President Lincoln's opinion, and in fact, the Fremont 
proclamation was very inopportune as well as premature. This 
he states very clearly in the Hodges letter of April 4th, when 
he says: "When, early in the war, General Fremont attempted 
military emancipation, I forbade it, because I did not then 
think it an indispensable necessity." Another reason for Mr. 
Lincoln's disapproval of the Fremont proclamation was his 
conviction that when emancipation became a necessity, as he 
thought possibly would sometime be the case, it should be 
proclaimed and made effective, not by a general in command 
of a department with his small area of territory and his limited 
authority and power, but by the President with his nation- 
wide jurisdiction and his great resources for making it uni- 
form and successful. This, as we shall soon see, was promi- 
nent in his thought at a later period and probably had its 



EMANCIPATION CONSIDERED 201 

influence in causing him to disapprove of the Fremont eman- 
cipation scheme. 

In addition to these considerations, each and all of which 
had influence with the President, the Fremont emancipation 
movement was in itself exceedingly objectionable to President 
Lincoln. He was careful not to refer to this in his official 
statements, for he realized that public sentiment against 
slavery was so strong and intense that a declaration by him 
against that emancipation movement would be misunderstood 
and would result in harm to the Union cause. 

In his letters to General Fremont the President sets forth 
no reason for his disapproval of the General's emancipation 
scheme save his apprehension that it would have a harmful 
influence with the Union people of the South. This was 
doubtless due to the restraints of ofiicial courtesy and of 
diplomatic considerations. But in his letter to Senator 
Browning before cited, he lays aside all reserve and inveighs 
against the proclamation with intense severity. He declares 
it to be "purely political and not within the range of military 
law or necessity. . . . The proclamation in the point in 
question is simply dictatorship. It assumes that the General 
may do anything he pleases — confiscate the lands and free the 
slaves of loyal people as well as of disloyal ones. And going 
the whole figure, I have no doubt would be more popular with 
some thoughtless people than that which has been done ! But 
I cannot assume this reckless position nor allow others to 
assume it on my responsibility." 

In reply to the Senator's claim that it was the only means 
of saving the government, he says: "On the contrary, it is 
itself the surrender of the government."^ 

These unusually strong declarations of Mr. Lincoln's ob- 
jections to General Fremont's attempt at military emancipa- 
tion reveal the nature of the trials through which he was then 
passing and the extent to which that affair added to their 
severity. 

5 Nicolay and Hay, Abraham Lincoln, A History, Vol. IV., pp. 421-422. 



202 LATEST LIGHT ON ABRAHAM LINCOLN 

The infelicities connected with this affair did not cause 
the President to take any action unfavorable to General Fre- 
mont, but on account of the bitter animosities in his depart- 
ment growing out of other matters, the President, after re- 
peated efforts to avoid so doing, relieved him of his command 
and appointed General David Hunter as his successor. In the 
spirit of a true soldier, General Fremont retired from his 
command in a manner calculated to be helpful to his successor. 
But while the harmful influences of his untimely emancipation 
proclamation were so far overcome as to prevent immediate 
serious results, the hostilities engendered by it, like avenging 
bloodhounds, pursued Mr. Lincoln during all the remainder 
of his weary days. 

In his plans to prosecute the war and save the nation, 
in his efforts to destroy slavery and in his candidacy for 
re-election those hostilities were ever present and added greatly 
to his difficulties and to the bitterness of the cup constantly 
pressed to his lips. 

The loyalty of the border states having been won by a 
policy of non-interference with slavery, it was found necessary 
to continue that policy in order to hold their allegiance to 
the Union. This it became very difficult to do. The progress 
of the war was constantly producing changes and creating 
new and difficult complications respecting slavery and the 
colored people. The white slave masters fled from the ap- 
proach of the Union army, leaving many thousands of colored 
slaves to be dealt with by the Government. Those slaves 
were eager to aid the Union cause as laborers or in any way 
by which they could be helpful to the Union army and to the 
Government. Thousands of them were anxious to enlist as 
soldiers and fight for the Union even against their former 
masters. How to deal with these loyal people was a problem 
of constantly increasing magnitude and importance, and as the 
war continued adherence to President Lincoln's purpose not 
to interfere with slavery became more and more difficult for 
all who were connected with the Government. 



EMANCIPATION CONSIDERED 203 

During autumn months of 1861, the Government, while 
not embarrassed by any attempts at military emancipation, 
was compelled to take action permitting the loyal slaves of 
disloyal masters to aid in efforts to save the nation. In the 
regions where the colored people were the most numerous and 
the climate was the most inhospitable to the Union soldiers, 
the demand for such action was most imperative. As time 
passed the Government was led increasingly to utilize the 
slaves to the greatest possible extent in overcoming the re- 
bellion. The first very important movement toward that 
policy was when arrangements were being made for the expe- 
ditions under General Sherman into South Carolina, where 
the colored population was in preponderance. On the 14th 
of October, 1861, in his instructions to General Sherman, the 
Secretary of War said among other things: "You will, how- 
ever, in general, avail yourself of the services of any persons, 
whether fugitives from labor or not, who may offer them- 
selves to the national Government. You may employ such 
persons in such services as they may be fitted for, either as 
ordinary employees, or, if special circumstances seem to re- 
quire it, in any other capacity, with such organization in 
squads, companies or otherwise, as you may deem most bene- 
ficial to the service. This, however, not to mean a general 
arming of them for military service." This last sentence 
was interlined by President Lincoln by his own hand. In 
the phrase "special circumstances" the word "special" was also 
added by the President. In making these amendments to the 
instructions sent to General Sherman by the Secretary of 
War, President Lincoln was seeking to avoid harmful criti- 
cisms from those who were ever ready to embarrass the Gov- 
ernment by stirring up race prejudice and by opposing all 
movements against slavery. To avoid being accused of the 
confiscation of the property of loyal people the order read: 
"You will assure all loyal masters that Congress will provide 
just compensation to them for the loss of the services of the 
persons so employed." And as an encouragement to those 



204 LATEST LIGHT ON ABRAHAM LINCOLN 

who should thus serve the Government it was added: "And 
you will assure all persons held to involuntary labor, who 
may be thus received into the service of the Government, that 
they will, under no circumstances, be again reduced to their 
former condition, unless at the expiration of their respective 
terms of service they freely choose to return to the service 
of their former masters."** 

This order marks the beginning of the enrollment of 
former slaves in the service of the Government, which was 
continued in force until there were enrolled two hundred and 
fifty thousand colored soldiers and laborers in the army. At 
the time this order was made President Lincoln had not 
reached the point at which he was willing to approve of the 
general enlistment in the Union army of former colored 
slaves, but he consented to this order because of the peculiar 
conditions in the section which the expedition under General 
Sherman was expected to occupy. The purpose to safeguard 
slavery against improper interference by the general Govern- 
ment which caused President Lincoln to disapprove of General 
Fremont's emancipation movement was still dominant in his 
mind and caused him to exercise constant supervision over his 
subordinates in military and civil services; and when pre- 
paring to submit to Congress in December, 1861, his annual 
message and the reports of the members of his Cabinet, he 
was astonished to discover that the annual report of the Sec- 
retary of War had been printed in pamphlet form without 
having been submitted to him, and had been sent by mail to 
the postmasters of the principal cities to be held by them in 
readiness to be given to the newspapers as soon as the Presi- 
dent's message was read in the two houses of Congress. 

The President's surprise at this unusual and irregular pro- 
ceeding grew into displeasure when he discovered that said 
report contained recommendations for the general enlistment 
in the Union Army of colored slaves, and their employment in 
military activities. This was so widely at variance with the 
«War Records, Vol. VI., p. 176. 



EMANCIPATION CONSIDERED 205 

position of the President at that time that the pamphlet copies 
of the report which had been sent out were, by telegraph, 
immediately ordered to be returned and the report was changed 
so as to conform with the views of Mr. Lincoln. 

This affair was well calculated to cause a serious rupture 
in the President's Cabinet ; the course pursued by the Secretary 
of War being not only at variance with the rules and customs 
in such cases, but of such a character as to produce the 
impression that it was an effort to circumvent the President 
by committing his administration to a policy of which he was 
known to disapprove. 

It was claimed at the time that the report was printed 
without the President's approval because of the apprehension 
that he would not approve of the recommendation respecting 
the enlistment of colored troops, and that it was distributed to 
the newspapers as it was to make difficult if not impossible its 
recall. The high standing of Secretary Simon Cameron, 
who was responsible for this unusual proceeding, added to 
the embarrassment of President Lincoln and to the difficulties 
encountered by him in his efforts so to adjust matters as to 
avoid serious results. General Cameron was by ten years 
President Lincoln's senior. He had been twice elected to 
the United States senate from Pennsylvania and had for eight 
years served in that body with marked distinction. In the 
Chicago convention that nominated Mr. Lincoln he was a 
prominent candidate for the Presidency and was the unani- 
mous choice of the Penns34vania delegation for that office, 
and when the opportune time arrived he approved of the action 
by which his support in that convention was given to Mr. 
Lincoln, and made possible his nomination. He was a man 
of very superior ability, of strong personality, with a large 
and enthusiastic following. His pronounced antislavery con- 
victions and tendencies caused him to be very closely allied 
with Seward and Chase, the two most prominent and influ- 
ential members of the Lincoln Cabinet, and there is ample 
evidence that those three distinguished Cabinet ministers were 



2o6 LATEST LIGHT ON ABRAHAM LINCOLN 

in frequent consultation concerning the feature of General 
Cameron's report to which the President objected. 

The situation was made more compHcated by the manifest 
reasonableness of the position assumed by General Cameron 
and the preponderance of loyal public sentiment in approval 
of his recommendation. Few men in Mr. Lincoln's position 
and with his limited experience in public life could have 
measured up to the requirements of that hour. But Mr. 
Lincoln was more than equal to the emergency. He remained 
calm through all of the affair. The storm, though severe, 
did not disturb the deep waters of his nature and his unyield- 
ing firmness held him to his declared purposes. 

My personal recollections of those events are still very 
vivid. The people did not know of the affair vmtil the dif- 
ficulties were adjusted, but were soon given the full text of 
the portion of General Cameron's reports to which the Presi- 
dent objected as well as the portion written to conform to the 
President's wishes. 

This incident was for a time very disturbing in official 
circles at Washington. It was generally supposed that it 
would cause the dismissal of Cameron from the Cabinet and 
possibly the w^thdraw^al of other members from the President's 
official family. It is quite certain that General Cameron 
expected to be requested by the President to resign as Secre- 
tary of War. But Mr. Lincoln disappointed all expectations 
by not manifesting the least resentment of the indignity nor 
any displeasure with General Cameron. His official relations 
with him were not in the least affected, and after a few weeks, 
when General Cameron had expressed a preference for a posi- 
tion in foreign service, he was appointed and confirmed as 
minister to Russia, and Edwin M. Stanton was chosen to suc- 
ceed him as Secretary of War. General Cameron continued 
as one of President Lincoln's most devoted and faithful 
friends and was one of the earliest and most ardent advocates 
of his re-election. By his magnanimous treatment of General 
Cameron and the appointment of Mr. Stanton as his successor, 



EMANCIPATION CONSIDERED 207 

In the Cabinet, President Lincoln converted the disintegrating 
influences of the Cameron affair into elements of strength, 
binding the members of his administration more closely to each 
other and to himself. 

The first regular session of Congress after President Lin- 
coln's inauguration convened on the 2nd of December, 1861. 
Mr. Lincoln's nine months of experience as President had 
to some degree modified his position respecting slavery, but 
conscious that the trend of events was in the direction of re- 
lentless warfare against that institution he sounded a note of 
warning in his first regular message by saying: "The L^nion 
must be preserved and hence all indispensable means must 
be employed. We should not be in haste to determine that 
radical and extreme measures which may reach the loyal 
as well as the disloyal are indispensable.'"^ 

In each of the two sentences here quoted the word "in- 
dispensable" is used, indicating that Mr. Lincoln was antici- 
pating the coming of conditions that would make it necessary 
to destroy slavery in order to save the nation. But he could 
not regard himself as absolved from the meaning of his oath 
of office and from his solemn promises not to interfere with 
slavery within state limits until he became fully convinced that 
by no other method could the nation be saved. Hence, the 
use of the word "indispensable" in his first regular message 
to Congress and in other papers before and after that event. 
But President Lincoln's conscientious scruples about inter- 
fering with slavery were not shared by all of those to whom 
that message was addressed. That Congress was made up 
largely of men fresh from the people and the loyal masses 
were becoming restless under the policy of safeguarding and 
protecting the institution which was seeking to destroy the 
nation. Hence, no counsel, not even from the President, 
could avail to arrest the movement against slavery. That 
movement was rapidly gaining in momentum, and the results 
of the war, whether favorable or otherwise, added to the num- 

^ Complete Works of Abraham Lincoln, Vol. VII., p. 52. 



2o8 LATEST LIGHT ON ABRAHAM LINCOLN 

ber and strength of the influences that were combining against 
the institution that all loyal people regarded as responsible 
for the war. 

President Lincoln, in his great anxiety to hold the border 
states in loyalty to the Union, earnestly advised moderation 
in all measures relating to slavery. But the radical element 
in Congress was intent on advance in antislavery legislation, 
and before the close of that first regular session of the thirty- 
seventh Congress, five important measures respecting slavery 
were enacted and were given the President's approval. 

The first and most important of those enactments was the 
law abolishing slavery in the District of Columbia. The 
history of that measure cannot be correctly written without 
taking account of facts which are not matters of public 
record, such as the action of committees, conferences with 
the President and with members of his Cabinet, and the 
work of sub-committees. 

The movement enlisted the efforts of a large number of 
the most prominent members of both branches of Congress, 
some of whom, though active and influential in securing its 
enactment, had no part in preparing the measure which became 
a law. Several members of Congress introduced bills upon 
that subject and if one considers the published official records 
only there is danger of failing correctly to determine the origin 
of the bill which was enacted. The complete official record 
of the proceedings that resulted in placing that important law 
upon the nation's statute books and the testimony of partici- 
pants in those proceedings show that the law is not identical 
with any one of the bills introduced by individual members, 
but is a composite made up of portions of several bills, together 
with amendments made by committees and by action of 
Congress. 

The bill introduced early in the session by Hon. James 
M. Ashley of Ohio consisted of only one sentence of twenty 
words, and provided "that slavery, or involuntary servitude, 
shall cease in the District of Columbia from and after the 



EMANCIPATION CONSIDERED 209 

passage of this act." The history of this brief bill can be 
fully traced through all the proceedings that followed to the en- 
actment of the law, because its author was identified with those 
proceedings more fully than was any senator or other mem- 
ber of the House of Representatives. That bill was referred 
to the committee for the District of Columbia, of which its 
author, General Ashley, was a member, and of which the Hon. 
Roscoe Conkling was chairman. In the routine of business 
the bill when read to the committee was by common consent 
referred to General Ashley, who, because he had introduced 
the measure and had it at the time in charge, at once became 
the target for many indignities from pro-slavery members of 
the committee and slave-owning residents of the District. 
Soon after the bill was thus referred to him as a committee 
of one. General Ashley was invited by Hon. Salmon P. Chase, 
Secretary of the Treasury, to a conference, during which the 
latter asked that the bill be amended so as to provide for 
compensation to loyal slave owners for slaves made free by 
its enactment. This was a remarkable suggestion, coming as 
it did from a man who at that time and during the remainder 
of Mr. Lincoln's administration was considered the leader of 
the extreme antislavery element in the republican party. But 
Mr. Chase knew that the President was contemplating an effort 
to enlist the border states in a scheme for gradual emancipa- 
tion with compensation by the Government for losses thus 
sustained. Therefore, it was his conviction that the President 
would object to the abolition of slavery in the District of 
Columbia unless provision was made for compensation. To 
this General Ashley was at first strongly opposed, but after 
a prolonged interview with the President, he came to look 
upon the suggestion of Mr. Chase as a possible means of 
securing for the bill some support it might not otherwise have 
received. At President Lincoln's suggestion General Ashley 
decided to ask the Senate Committee for the District of Co- 
lumbia to assign one of its members to confer with him and 
aid in the preparation of a bill that would be acceptable to 



210 LATEST LIGHT ON ABRAHAM LINCOLN 

the President. Fortunately, Senator Lot M. Morrill of 
Maine was appointed as General Ashley's associate and after 
repeated and prolonged conferences extending over a period 
of several weeks, those two gentlemen came to agreement 
on a bill which, after being approved by President Lincoln 
and Mr. Chase and by the committees of the two Houses of 
Congress, was, on the 12th day of March, 1862, reported to 
the House of Representatives by General Ashley with the 
recommendation of the committee that it be passed. Along 
with a like recommendation from the Senate committee for 
the District of Columbia, the bill was reported to the senate 
by Senator Morrill, and after extended discussion and amend- 
ment, on the 3rd of April, 1862, it was passed by a vote 
of twenty-nine for to fourteen against. On the nth of April 
the bill as amended by the senate passed the House by a vote 
of ninety-two for to thirty-eight against, and was approved 
by the President and became a law on the i6th of April, 1862. 
The law abolished slavery in the District of Columbia and 
appropriated one million dollars to compensate loyal slave 
owners for their slaves at the rate of three hundred dollars 
for each slave made free by that law, and also appropriated 
one hundred thousand dollars for expenses of voluntary emi- 
gration to Hayti or Liberia. General Ashley's objection to 
the compensation feature of this bill, already mentioned, was 
on account of his disapproval of such a recognition by the 
Government of the slave holder's ownership of their slaves, 
and also because he believed that three-fourths of those who 
would receive compensation were secessionists at heart and in 
sympathy with the Rebellion. Many other radical anti slavery 
members were of the same opinion, but all submitted to that 
objectionable feature of the bill because of their ardent desire 
to banish slavery from the national capital and from the Dis- 
trict in which it was located. President Lincoln, however, 
was in favor of compensating all loyal slave owners for slaves 
made free by action of the Government and providing for the 
cost of voluntary colonization, and he was delighted to have 



EMANCIPATION CONSIDERED 211 

both of these features included in the law making the District 
of Columbia free. Of the other four antislavery measures 
adopted during that session of Congress the most important 
was the law prohibiting slavery from the territories of the 
United States and from all territory that for any purpose or 
at any time might be acquired by the nation. The enactment 
by Congress of that law was peculiarly pleasing to Mr. Lin- 
coln, as it was in the line of the teachings to which he has 
devoted so many years. The fundamental doctrine of the re- 
publican party was that "The Constitution confers upon Con- 
gress sovereign power over the territories for their govern- 
ment," and that in the exercise of that power Congress should 
prohibit slavery in the territories of the United States. The 
great speeches which made Abraham Lincoln famous and won 
for him the Presidency were all in defense of that doctrine, 
and he was never more eloquent and forceful than when 
insisting that not one foot of free soil should ever be con- 
taminated by slavery. And when it became his privilege, by 
his signature, to make valid an enactment embodying the 
teachings of all his life, the foundation principle of his party 
and the requirements of civic righteousness, he had reached 
a height of personal achievement above which very few have 
ever risen. And in the enactment of that law the long, hard 
struggle against oppression found a rich reward. Since the 
glad day in which that law became effective not one inch of 
free territory in all of our national domain has ever felt the 
tread of the heel of tyranny. 

Quite as gratifying to all loyal people as the law granting 
freedom to the slaves of the disloyal was that other law 
providing for the enlistment of colored freedmen as soldiers 
in the Union army. No one act of the Government, save the 
edict of the Emancipation, wrought as efifectively as did that 
law in the final overthrow of the Rebellion. The measure of 
Congress which afforded the human heart greatest relief and 
gratification was the additional article of war prohibiting the 
arrest of the fugitive slaves by any officer or person in the 



212 LATEST LIGHT ON ABRAHAM LINCOLN 

military or naval service. Apart from slavery itself the most 
objectionable feature of the reign of slavery was the Fugitive 
Slave Lav^, by which the freedom-loving people of the free 
states were required to pursue, capture and return to slavery 
fugitives from bondage who were fleeing to a land of liberty, 
and that article of war marked the end of that unspeakably 
offensive Fugitive Slave Law. 

The^e five antislavery laws enacted during that first regular 
session of the thirty-seventh Congress, together with the Con- 
fiscation Law passed during the special session, marked the 
great advance being made in the direction of the extinction 
of slavery. During the time these measures were under con- 
sideration in Congress, President Lincoln was earnestly en- 
gaged in efforts to persuade the Border States to adopt a sys- 
tem of emancipation with compensation by the Government 
for their slaves thus made free. His pleadings were pathetic, 
but were all unavailing. His efforts, however, were helpful 
to the enactment of the antislavery laws before recited and 
aided in creating the conditions which brought forth the 
great edict of Emancipation. The trend of events was evi- 
dently in the direction of a declaration against slavery, but 
before conditions, in President Lincoln's estimation, seemed 
to demand such action he was unexpectedly required by his 
convictions of duty again to interpose his authority and over- 
rule a movement against slavery by one of his subordinates. 

On the 9th of May, 1862, General David Hunter, in com- 
mand of the department of the South, issued an order of mili- 
tary emancipation which on the 19th of May President 
Lincoln in a proclamation declared to be without authority 
from the General Government and therefore void. No im- 
proper motives could by any one be ascribed to General 
Hunter for his action in this matter. He was an ofllicer of 
exceptional ability with no political aspirations or tendencies, 
and was a devoted personal and political friend of Mr. Lin- 
coln. His department included the states of South Carolina, 
Georgia and Florida, having a population which normally 



EMANCIPATION CONSIDERED 213 

consisted of from three to five slaves to one white person. 
The whites were secessionists and had all fled upon the ap- 
proach of the Union army. The colored people were all loyal 
and were eager to aid the Government as laborers or as sol- 
diers in the army, for which they were at the time organizing. 
The order of the Secretary of War to General Sherman here- 
inbefore mentioned and the laws enacted by Congress, which 
was then in session, together with conditions in his department, 
seemed to General Hunter to justify his proclamation of free- 
dom for the slaves. 

But the issuing of that proclamation by General Hunter 
was an exercise of authority that President Lincoln regarded 
as the prerogative of the Chief Executive only, and upon that 
ground the proclamation was overruled. Secretary Chase in 
a letter to the President asked him to permit the order to stand, 
but Mr. Lincoln was clear in his conviction that he could not 
rightfully do so. Therefore, on the proclamation he wrote, 
as he also stated in his letter to Chase, "No commanding 
general should do such a thing upon my responsibility without 
consulting me."^ 

In his proclamation of May 19th, 1862, annulling the 
emancipation portion of General Hunter's order, President 
Lincoln said: "I further make known that, whether it be 
competent for me, as commander-in-chief of the army and 
navy, to declare the slaves of any State or States free, and 
whether, at any time, in any case, it shall have become a 
necessity indispensable to the maintenance of the Government 
to exercise such supposed power, are questions which, under 
my responsibility, I reserve to myself, and which I cannot 
feel justified in leaving to the decision of commanders in the 
field. These are totally different questions from those of 
police regulations in armies and camps."® 

By comparing these quotations from the President's proc- 

8 Warden's "Life of Salmon P. Chase," p. 434. Complete Works of 
Abraham Lincoln, Vol. VIL, p. 167. 

9 Complete Works of Abraham Lincoln, Vol. VIL, pp. 171-172. 



214 LATEST LIGHT ON ABRAHAM LINCOLN 

lamation with his statements nine months before when dis- 
approving of General Fremont's emancipation scheme, we dis- 
cover a very great change in his attitude toward slavery. In 
this proclamation by the President there is no disapproval 
of emancipation nor any reference to its possible unfavorable 
influence in the states permitting slavery. The only objection 
to General Hunter's order which is here stated is based on the 
General's lack of authority to take such action without con- 
sulting the President. But very significant is the intimation 
in this proclamation of the possibility of a future emancipation 
policy by the President himself. As I now read those hints 
of such possible action by the President, I am astonished that 
they were not understood by the people at that time. We had 
come to look upon Mr. Lincoln as unyieldingly opposed to 
all avoidable interference with slavery within state limits, and 
we were not looking for any movement by him against that 
institution. Therefore, we did not then discover that in over- 
ruling General Hunter's proclamation because it was issued 
without due authority, the President encouraged the hope that 
at an early day he would turn the batteries of the Govern- 
ment upon slavery. It was doubtless to prepare the public 
mind for such an event that Mr. Lincoln in this proclamation 
stated that he reserved to himself the exclusive right to issue 
an emancipation proclamation, to decide whether such action 
could rightfully be taken and when it could wisely be done. 
For a like purpose. President Lincoln in his annual message 
in December stated that "all indispensable means must be em- 
ployed" to save the Union. He was feeling the pressure of 
the antislavery sentiment of the loyal people and was edu- 
cating the public mind to regard emancipation as indispen- 
sable to the preservation of the nation. As President Lin- 
coln saw the coming of emancipation he also saw the utter 
financial ruin that it would bring upon the portions of the 
country where it should be made effective. And with all his 
heart and soul he desired and endeavored to rescue those sec- 
tions from that calamity by having the General Government 



EMANCIPATION CONSIDERED 215 

compensate slave owners for their financial loss through eman- 
cipation. As an object lesson teaching the effectiveness of 
such a plan he secured compensation in connection with the 
abolition of slavery in the District of Columbia. On the 6th 
of March, 1862, while that District bill was under considera- 
tion in Congress, the President by special message asked for 
the adoption of the following joint resolution: "Resolved, 
That the United States ought to co-operate with any State 
which may adopt gradual abolishment of slavery, giving to 
such State pecuniary aid, to be used by such State, in its 
discretion, to compensate for the inconvenience, public and 
private, produced by such change of system."^" 

This resolution was quoted by President Lincoln in his 
proclamation overruling General Hunter's emancipation proc- 
lamation. So dominant in his soul was the desire by compen- 
sation to save the South from the ruinous results of the 
destruction of slavery which he had come to regard as inevit- 
able, that he turned aside from the main purpose of his proc- 
lamation to advocate his favorite proposition of "compensate 
abolishment" of that institution. Respecting the foregoing 
joint resolution Mr. Lincoln said: "The resolution, in the 
language above quoted, was adopted by large majorities in 
both branches of Congress, and now stands an authentic, 
definite, and solemn proposal of the nation to the states and 
people most immediately interested in the subject matter. To 
the people of those states I now earnestly appeal. I do not 
argue — I beseech you to make arguments for yourselves. 
You cannot, if you would, be blind to the signs of the times. 
I beg of you a calm and enlarged consideration of them, rang- 
ing, if it may be, far above personal and partisan politics. 
This proposal makes common cause for a common object, 
casting no reproaches upon any. It acts not the Pharisee. 
The change it contemplates would come gently as the dews 
of heaven, not rending or wrecking anything. Will you not 
embrace it? So much good has not been done, by one effort, 
^•^ Complete Works of Abraham Lincoln, Vol. VII., p. 172, 



2i6 LATEST LIGHT ON ABRAHAM LINCOLN 

in all past time, as in the providence of God it is now your 
high privilege to do. May the vast future not have to lament 
that you have neglected it."" 

Early in the war Mr. Lincoln in a private conversation 
with Robert J. Walker and James R. Gilmore intimated that 
he was considering a proposition to ofTer financial compensa- 
tion to slave states that would co-operate with the General 
Government in accomplishing the gradual abolishment of 
slavery. He then expressed the conviction that the North and 
South were jointly and equally responsible for the existence 
of slavery in the nation, and that any financial loss from its 
abolishment should be borne by the General Government. To 
this conviction he steadfastly adhered, even after Congress 
had submitted to the states the Constitutional Amendment 
abolishing and forever prohibiting slavery in the nation; but 
that compensation for financial loss through emancipation was 
for states co-operating with the Government in abolishing 
slavery, and in conversation with Governor Walker he said: 
"If we must fight out this war to a victory there should be no 
compensation." 

And when dealing with the Hunter proclamation Mr. Lin- 
coln realized that slavery was doomed and that only by. the 
plan suggested in his gradual emancipation message of 
March 6th could any state permitting slavery escape from dis- 
astrous financial loss. Hence, his impassioned appeal to the 
slave states to accept the compensated abolishment proposition 
which he quoted in the proclamation annulling General Hun- 
ter's order. Hence, also, his conference on the 12th of July, 
1862, with members of Congress from the Border States 
and his strong appeal to them not to neglect the opportunity 
afforded them to aid in the early termination of the war and 
to save their states from the disastrous financial loss by com- 
mending to their constituents the compensation proposition of 
the General Government. 

At the time of that conference with the representatives 
11 Complete Works of Abraham Lincoln, Vol. VII., pp. 172-173. 



EMANCIPATION CONSIDERED 217 

of the Border States, President Lincoln had not only decided 
to issue an Emancipation Proclamation, but the original copy 
of that great document had been prepared by him and was 
probably lying in his private drawer within his reach as he 
was reading to those gentlemen his fervent plea for their 
assistance in making his compensation abolishment plan suc- 
cessful. 

This fact explains the peculiar character of his appeal on 
the 1 2th of July to those members of Congress from the 
Border States. His marshaling of facts, cogency of argu- 
ment, solemn warnings and impassioned appeal resemble the 
tearful messages of Jeremiah, when in prophetic vision he saw 
the calamities into which his people were stubbornly advanc- 
ing. To have pointed those men to the sword of judgment 
against slavery which even then was lifted up and was ready 
to fall, would have been to employ a threat to accomplish 
what he still hoped to achieve by persuasion. In the Hodges 
letter, from which I have already quoted, referring to his 
efforts with the Border State men. President Lincoln said: 
"When in March and May and July, 1862, I made earnest 
and successive appeals to the Border States to favor compen- 
sated emancipation, I believed the indispensable necessity for 
military emancipation and arming the blacks would come 
unless averted by that measure. They declined the proposition, 
and I was, in my best judgment, driven to the alternative of 
either surrendering the Union, and with it the Constitution, 
or of laying strong hand upon the colored element."" 

On the 7th of April, 1864, three days after the Hodges 
letter was written, in a conversation with Mr. George Thomp- 
son, Mr. Lincoln, referring to the time of which I am writing, 
said: "The moment came when I felt that slavery must die 
that the nation might live." 

That interview with the Border State men on the 12th 
of July, 1862, was the last of Mr. Lincoln's efforts to avoid 
or postpone the issuing of a proclamation of freedom. If 
12 Complete Works of Abraham Lincoln, Vol. X., p. 67. 



2i8 LATEST LIGHT ON ABRAHAM LINCOLN 

those gentlemen upon that occasion had encouraged the Presi- 
dent to hope that they would aid in making his compensation 
scheme successful it is quite certain that he would have with- 
held his proclamation until they could have done so; but by 
declining his invitation they left him without an alternative, 
and the next day in a conversation with Seward and Welles 
he declared his purpose to issue an Emancipation Procla- 
mation. 



VII 

EMANCIPATION PROCLAMATION 

THE Emancipation Proclamation was the product of a 
severe struggle between the radical and conservative 
elements of the nation. That struggle continued with 
constantly increasing vigor during the first year and a half 
of Mr. Lincoln's Presidency, and ceased when that Proclama- 
tion was issued on the 22nd of September, 1862. After that 
date the conservative element with decreased and decreasing 
severity opposed the Emancipation policy of the administra- 
tion, but the victory of the radicals was practically won when 
the preliminary proclamation was issued. 

President Lincoln became the unwilling captive of the 
radical element, and with very great and painful reluctance 
accomplished by the Emancipation Proclamation what he dili- 
gently sought to avoid. He ardently desired the abolishment 
of slavery by state action and not by edict of the General 
Government. After the preliminary Proclamation was issued 
he stated to Hon. Edwin Stanley, Military Governor of North 
Carolina, "that he had prayed to the Almighty to save him 
from this necessity, adopting the very language of our 
Saviour, Tf it be possible, let this cup pass from me,' but the 
prayer had not been answered." ^ 

To the representatives from the Border States, on July 
1 2th, 1862, the President said: "I am pressed with a difficulty 
not yet mentioned — one which threatens division among those 
who, united, are none too strong." In this President Lincoln 
referred to the Proclamation of Emancipation which had been 
issued by General Hunter, and said: "In repudiating it, I gave 
dissatisfaction, if not offense, to many whose support the 
1 Thorndyke Rice, Reminiscences of Abraham Lincoln, p. 533. 

219 



220 LATEST UGHT ON ABRAHAM LINCOLN 

country cannot afford to lose. And this is not the end of it. 
The pressure in this direction is still upon me and is increas- 
ing."' 

The next day after that conference, in his conversation 
with Secretaries Seward and Welles, according to the testi- 
mony of the latter, Mr. Lincoln declared that Emancipation 
"was forced upon him as a necessity," "was thrust at him 
from various quarters," and "had been driven home to him 
by the conference of the preceding day." 

The conference to which President Lincoln here refers 
was the one with the Border State men, and it was their re- 
jection of his proposition for compensated emancipation that 
had "driven home to him" the necessity of an Emancipation 
Proclamation. He realized that a crisis had been reached and 
that what he designated as "Military Emancipation" had 
become an indispensable necessity. The struggle by which 
that decision was evolved began when he became President. 
The Fremont Emancipation movement was an eruption from 
the volcano of antislavery sentiment among the loyal masses 
and the contest which that movement precipitated added to 
the influences arrayed in hostility to slavery. On the 15th 
of November, 1861, eight months after Mr. Lincoln's inaugu- 
ration, Hon. George Bancroft addressed a letter to the Presi- 
dent in which he said: 

"Your administration has fallen upon times which will be 
remembered as long as human events find a record. I sin- 
cerely wish to you the glory of perfect success. Civil war is 
the instrument of Divine Providence to root out social slavery. 
Posterity will not be satisfied with the result unless the conse- 
quences of the war shall effect an increase of free States. 
This is the universal expectation and hope of men of all 
parties." 

In reply to Mr. Bancroft's letter the President wrote: 
"The main thought in the closing paragraph of your letter 
is one which does not escape my attention, and with which I 
- Complete Works of Abraham Lincoln, Vol. VII., pp. 272-273. 



EMANCIPATION PROCLAMATION 221 

must deal in all due caution, and with the best judgment I 
can bring to it." ^ 

Mr. Bancroft's high standing in public esteem, his great 
wisdom and discretion and his large experience in public life, 
gave much weight to his declaration respecting slavery, and 
Mr. Lincoln's reply to that portion of his letter is a milestone 
marking his progress toward the conclusion announced by him 
eight months later in his conversation with two members of 
his Cabinet, as already cited. 

During the months immediately preceding Emancipation 
Mr. Lincoln's mail was loaded with letters similar to the one 
received by him from Mr. Bancroft. Many conservative 
people of prominence in business activities and professional 
pursuits very earnestly counselled the President as did Mr. 
Bancroft, not to delay but to hasten the execution of the edict 
of destiny against slavery. People distinguished for their 
moderation and for their affiliation with conservative organi- 
zations and movements were emphatic in their declarations 
to the President, by letters and otherwise, that slavery should 
not be permitted to survive the war it had brought upon the 
nation. Leading democrats like Hon. Robert J. Walker of 
Mississippi and Gen. Benjamin F. Butler of Massachusetts 
assured the President of their conviction that, as slavery had 
drawn the sword it should speedily perish by the sword. 
People of strong antislavery views were earnest and untiring 
in their demands that slavery should be slain that it might not 
slay the nation. All these insisted that as slavery was the 
Rebellion's main pillar of strength it should be destroyed as 
a means for suppressing the Rebellion. They would not per- 
mit the President nor the loyal people to forget, that shortly 
before the war Representative Ashmore of South Carolina 
had declared in Congress that "the South can sustain more 
men in the field than the North can. Here four millions of 
slaves alone will enable her to support an army of half a 
million." 

3 Complete Works of Abraham Lincoln, Vol. VII., pp. 20-21. 



222 LATEST LIGHT ON ABRAHAM LINCOLN 

Similar declarations were made by other prominent South- 
ern men, and the Southern disloyal press teemed with edi- 
torials and contributed articles calling attention to the great 
advantage to the South of having such a vast force of toiling 
men and women to conduct agricultural and other activities 
of the South while the white men were at the front fighting 
against the Union armies. 

The sentiments of the loyal people who remembered these 
boasts were faithfully represented by the declaration of Gov- 
ernor Andrew of Massachusetts to the President in May, 
1862, when he said: "The people of Massachusetts have come 
to feel it a heavy draft on their patriotism to be asked to fight 
Rebels without being permitted to fire on their magazines." 

In a like vein, but with greater bitterness, Horace Greeley 
said: "On the face of this wide earth, Mr. President, there 
is not one disinterested, determined, intelligent champion of 
the Union cause who does not feel that all attempts to put 
down the Rebellion and at the same time uphold its inciting 
cause are preposterous and futile." 

While declarations favorable to emancipation were pouring 
in upon President Lincoln by letters, newspaper articles and 
interviewers, church gatherings and reform associations were 
passing strong antislavery resolutions and sending delegations 
to the White House to declare their loyalty to the Union and 
to plead for the overthrow of slavery. No delegations from 
church bodies or from organizations engaged in reform work 
during those months of agitation and strife asked that slavery 
be left undisturbed, but all espoused the cause of emancipation. 
Many loyal people, however, feared that any interference 
with slavery by the General Government would be harmful 
to the Union cause and all who were pro-slavery at heart 
were watchful and vigilant in "safeguarding the peculiar in- 
stitution." On the 13th of September, 1862, in addressing 
a delegation from the religious bodies of Chicago, President 
Lincoln said: "I am approached with the most opposite 
opinions and advice, and that by religious men who are equally 



EMANCIPATION PROCLAMATION 223 

certain that they represent the divine will. . . . The subject 
is difficult and good men do not agree. . . . You know 
also that the last session of Congress had a decided majority 
of antislavery men, yet they could not unite upon this policy. 
The same is true of the religious people." * 

The struggles between those contending forces were con- 
stant and at times very severe ; but as resistlessly as the coming 
of the day the antislavery movement advanced. Mr. Lincoln 
recognized the growth of public sentiment in favor of eman- 
cipation and realized that he was rapidly approaching the time 
when he would be compelled by his own sense of duty to 
proclaim freedom to the slaves. A few days before the Eman- 
cipation Proclamation was issued in an interview with Rev. 
William Henry Channing and M. D. Conway he said: "Per- 
haps we may be better able to do something in that direction 
after awhile than we are now. ... I think the country 
is growing in this direction daily and I am not without hope 
that something of the desire of you and your friends may be 
accomplished. When the hour comes for dealing with slavery 
I trust I shall be willing to do my duty though it costs my 
life." 

While the growth of public sentiment against slavery, to 
which in the foregoing interview President Lincoln referred, 
was being accomplished, there were going on in his own mind 
and heart some very remarkable changes of conviction and 
purpose. In his letter to Senator Browning, at the time of 
the Fremont Emancipation movement, already cited, Mr. 
Lincoln said: "Can it be pretended that it is any longer the 
Government of the United States — any government of con- 
stitution and law — where any general or a President may 
make permanent rules of property by proclamation? I do 
not say Congress might not, with propriety, pass a law on 
tiie point, just such as General Fremont proclaimed. I do 
not say I might not as I may have Congress vote for it. 
What I object to is that I, as President, shall expressly or 
* Complete Works of Abraham Lincoln, Vol. VIII., pp. 28-29. 



224 LATEST LIGHT ON ABRAHAM LINCOLN 

impliedly, seize the permanent legislative functions of the 
government." ^ 

This cannot mean less than a declaration that he did not 
regard himself as clothed with authority to issue an edict of 
freedom for those in slavery under the laws of a state. 

Thirteen months later, on the 9th of May, 1862, in over- 
ruling General Hunter's emancipation edict, the President 
intimated that he might reach the conclusion that he had the 
right to issue such a proclamation of freedom. 

And only four months after that intimation in his reply 
to the previously mentioned delegation from Chicago, on the 
13th of September, 1862, he stated his conviction relative to 
that matter in the following unequivocal declaration: *T raise 
no objection against it on legal or constitutional grounds, 
for as commander-in-chief of the Army and Navy, in time 
of war, I suppose I have a right to take any measures which 
may best subdue the enemy." ^ 

These quotations are sufficient to show the changes that 
were taking place in President Lincoln's mind, but they do 
not disclose the more important changes that were taking 
place in his intentions. To no person, not even to his closest 
and most intimate friends, did he during those eighteen 
months give a hint of any change in his purposes relative to 
emancipation. And it was his habit when conferring with 
persons upon matters of importance to argue against a deci- 
sion he already had made and a course he intended to pursue. 
He did this not only to conceal his intentions, when he re- 
garded it necessary to do so, but also and chiefly to draw 
from others their strongest arguments in favor of the purposes 
he had formed. Hence, it is matter of authentic record that 
the strongest arguments against emancipation were those 
made by the President after the Emancipation Proclamation 
was written and had been submitted to the Cabinet for con- 
sideration. It seemed necessary for him to pursue this course 

5 Nicolay and Hay, Vol. IV., p. 422. 

« Complete Works of Abraham Lincoln, Vol. VIII., pp. 31-32. 



EMANCIPATION PROCLAMATION 225 

with individuals, committees and delegations which were 
urging him to adopt and pursue an antislavery policy, but it 
caused him to be unfortunately misunderstood by many of 
his true friends during the time he was waiting for such a 
policy to become "an indispensable necessity." And it also 
produced the bewildering disagreement found in published 
statements of the order of events connected with the prepara-' 
tion and issuing of the Emancipation Proclamation. 

In "Six Months in the White House," Mr. F. B. Car- 
penter, the artist who painted the historic picture of Lincoln 
and his Cabinet, publishes his recollections of President Lin- 
coln's account to him of the preparation of the Emancipation 
Proclamation and its consideration by the Cabinet. That 
portion of Mr. Carpenter's book has been reproduced ver- 
batim by many authors of works on Lincoln, and has been 
made the basis by other authors for their histories of those 
events. But Mr. Carpenter's errors in dates, which have 
thus been given wide publicity, are all corrected by official 
records, by diaries kept by Secretaries Chase and Welles of 
the President's Cabinet, and by persons closely associated with 
the President. By careful and extended examination of those 
public and personal records I am able here to present an 
absolutely correct history of that proclamation from the time 
it was first written by Mr. Lincoln until it was finally pub- 
lished as an edict of the Government. 

On Wednesday, July 9th, 1862, according to the Presi- 
dent's own statements, while on the steamer returning to 
Washington from his inspection of the army under General 
McClellan at Harrison's Landing, he wrote the first rough 
draft of the Emancipation Proclamation.^ 

Thursday, July loth. President Lincoln invited his pastor. 
Rev. P. D. Gurley, D.D., to be the first to learn of his decision 
to issue an Emancipation Proclamation, and also to afford him 
the aid of his ability and learning in the preparation of that 
document. After this conference with his pastor, the rough 
^Abraham Lincoln and His Presidency, Vol. II., p. 112. 



226 LATEST LIGHT ON ABRAHAM LINCOLN 

draft was carefully rewritten by Mr. Lincoln and included 
four valuable changes suggested by Dr. Gurley. 

Friday, July nth, the President invited Vice-President 
Hamlin to spend a night with him at the Soldiers' Home for 
a conference, as he said, "about an important matter." After 
dinner the President said, "Hamlin, you have often urged me 
to issue an Emancipation Proclamation, and as I have decided 
to do so, I have asked you to be the first one to see the docu- 
ment and to confer with me about it." This of course refers 
to the copy of the proclamation the President prepared after 
his consultation with Dr. Gurley. Mr. Hamlin heartily ap- 
proved of the proposition and suggested three changes in the 
phraseology, two of which Mr. Lincoln accepted. After that 
evening, as far as known, the proclamation was not again 
seen save by the President, until it was presented to the Cabi- 
net for their consideration. 

Saturday, July 12th, President Lincoln held the repeatedly 
mentioned conference with the Border States representatives. 
During that conference he made no reference to the forth- 
coming announcement of emancipation, but very strongly 
urged the approval of his compensation policy in view of the 
manifest trend of affairs in regard to slavery. 

Sunday, July 13th, while on the way to attend the funeral 
of Secretary Stanton's child. President Lincoln informed Sec- 
retaries Seward and Welles that he intended to issue an Eman- 
cipation Proclamation. Upon no previous occasion had Mr. 
Lincoln intimated to any member of his Cabinet that he was 
contemplating any such action. Secretary Welles, in his 
diary, in a somewhat extended account of the affair, says: 
"It was a new departure for the President, for until this time 
in all our previous interviews, whenever the question of eman- 
cipation or the mitigation of slavery had been in any way 
alluded to he had been prompt and emphatic in denouncing 
any interference by the General Government with the 
subject." * 

* Diary of Gideon Welles, Vol. II., pp. 70-71. 



EMANCIPATION PROCLAMATION 227 

Mr. Lincoln was greatly depressed while making this dis- 
closure and explaining the processes by which he had reached 
the conclusion to take this important step. He had come in 
from the Soldiers' Home to attend the funeral and had invited 
the two secretaries to accompany him. His long-time, devoted 
friend, Judge Henry C. Whitney, was in the entrance-hall 
of the White House when the President came down the stairs 
to take the carriage standing at the door. Judge Whitney 
states that Seward, whom he could see sitting in the carriage, 
"looked at peace with himself and all mankind . . . and 
appeared perfectly easy and contented." Of Mr. Lincoln's 
appearance Judge Whitney says: "Oh! how haggard and de- 
jected he looked. I had not seen him for nine months and 
the change was frightful to behold. . . . Lincoln spoke to 
me and shook hands quite mechanically — he was absent- 
minded, he did not know me at all — he was oblivious of my 
presence or of any one's presence. ... I knew from the 
disaster painted on Lincoln's face that some bad news was in 
the air." " 

The "bad news" that chiselled agitation on the kindly face 
of Mr. Lincoln that day was not the destructive raids General 
Morgan was then making in Kentucky and adjoining states. 
Disturbing as these were, something far worse was on that 
13th of July crushing the heart of the great and good Chief 
Magistrate. On the preceding day he had failed in his effort 
by compensation to save the South from the financial ruin of 
the policy he had decided to pursue for the saving of the 
nation. It was that failure and its far-reaching consequences, 
as foreseen by him, that shrouded his soul in gloom on that 
memorable Sabbath morning. 

President Lincoln's statement to Mr. Hamlin on the pre- 
ceding Friday evening and his statement to Seward and 
Welles on that Sunday morning, when fully understood, are 
in full accord with his statements to Mr. Carpenter, the artist, 
that the proclamation was prepared without consultation with 
^ On the Circuit with Lincoln, p. 566. 



228 LATEST LIGHT ON ABRAHAM LINCOLN 

any member of his Cabinet, for it was fully prepared before 
that conference with Seward and Welles. 

July 14th President Lincoln sent to Congress a messa:ge 
asking for the enactment of a law providing for financial 
compensation to states that would adopt gradual emancipation. 

July 22nd the Emancipation Proclamation was for the 
first time presented to the Cabinet. All the members of that 
body were present, and after extended discussion. President 
Lincoln, upon the suggestion of Secretary Seward, withdrew 
the document to be again presented when conditions in the 
field were more favorable to the Union cause. During the 
weeks that followed the proposition was held in absolute con- 
fidence by every member of the Cabinet. It was the year 
for the election of members of Congress, and political cam- 
paigns were being prosecuted during those weeks with very 
great vigor. I was every day, at that time, engaged in po- 
litical work and was closely associated with leaders of the 
Union party, and not one of my associates or acquaintances 
had the slightest intimation that the President had any thought 
of issuing an Emancipation Proclamation. Important as was 
the measure and widespread and deep as was public interest 
in the subject, there was no "leak" from any member of the 
President's official family, nor from any one who had been 
consulted relative to the matter. 

It is interesting to think of that proclamation being held 
by President Lincoln during those weeks of battles at the 
front and struggles in the political arena, in constant readiness 
to be thrown with resistless force at the most vulnerable point 
of the Rebellion when the favorable moment should arrive. 
In his history of those weeks in July and August, given 
Mr. Carpenter, the artist. President Lincoln says: "I put 
the draft of the Proclamation aside, as you do your sketch for 
a picture, waiting for a victory. From time to time I added 
or changed a line, touching it up here and there, anxiously 
awaiting the progress of events." 

The proclamation that had been considered by the Cabinet 



EMANCIPATION PROCLAMATION 229 

that day in July was not all laid aside as this statement by 
Mr. Lincoln seems to indicate. The first portion of that 
document related to a confiscation act which had been passed 
by Congress a few days before, and three days later (on 
July 25th) it was issued as a separate proclamation by the 
President. The second portion of the paper considered that 
day by the Cabinet was a declaration by the President of his 
purpose to ask Congress to enact a law providing for com- 
pensation to states abolishing slavery, and the third and last 
portion was the Proclamation of Emancipation. That proc- 
lamation with the preceding section in relation to the Presi- 
dent's purpose was laid aside and amended from time to time 
as stated by President Lincoln to Mr. Carpenter. 

It was at this meeting of the Cabinet that Secretary Seward 
suggested an amendment that would pledge the United States 
to maintain the freedom of those who should be emancipated 
by the proclamation. 

Wednesday, September 17th, the battle of Antietam was 
fought, and not until Saturday, September 20th, was it 
known with certainty that the result was favorable to the 
Union cause. When that information reached the President 
at the Soldiers' Home, he immediately proceeded to the final 
revision of the preliminary proclamation. 

Monday, September 22nd, 1862, President Lincoln came 
in from the Soldiers' Hom.e to the White House, called a 
miceting of the Cabinet, and for the second time presented 
to them the Emancipation Proclamation. It was at this meet- 
ing that he also told the members of his Cabinet that he had 
"made a solemn vow before God" which he intended now to 
keep "by the declaration of freedom to the slaves"; that he 
did not wish their advice about the main matter, for he knew 
their views, as they had freely and fully expressed them when 
the subject was before them in July; that he had decided to 
issue the proclamation and would be glad to consider any 
suggestions they might wish to make respecting forms of 
expression or minor matters connected with the document. 



230 LATEST LIGHT ON ABRAHAM LINCOLN 

The proclamation read by Mr. Lincoln at this meeting of 
his Cabinet was quite unlike the paper he submitted to them, 
and after consideration laid aside two months before. It 
had been enlarged and strengthened and made much more 
expressive of its high purpose, and it contained the two words 
suggested by Seward at the July meeting. Other amend- 
ments failed to receive the President's approval and the his- 
torical proclamation, after being signed and given the Gov- 
ernment's official seal, was published on Tuesday morning, 
September 23rd, 1862. 

The foregoing record shows that from July 22nd to Sep- 
tember 22nd — exactly two months — the preliminary Emanci- 
pation Proclamation was under consideration by the President 
and his Cabinet, with no other persons save the Vice-President 
and the President's pastor having any knowledge of the pur- 
pose to issue such a document. This fact gives peculiar in- 
terest to the events that transpired during those two months. 
Twenty-eight days after that proclamation was first submitted 
to the Cabinet, and by their advice temporarily laid aside, and 
while the President was waiting and praying for a victory 
that would enable him to issue it under auspicious conditions, 
Horace Greeley, in the Tribune of August 19th, published 
an editorial entitled, "The Prayer of Twenty Million," in 
which, with harsh and heartless severity, he denounced the 
President for not pursuing a more vigorous policy against 
slavery. That editorial expressed the feelings of the radical 
antislavery people, who were eager for just such an edict as 
was the proclamation the President had prepared and was 
anxiously waiting to announce. The harmful influence of that 
Greeley editorial was speedily arrested by Mr. Lincoln's reply 
which, though it made no disclosures of the emancipation 
policy soon to be adopted, effectively silenced the great editor 
and quieted the unrest of the reasonable people throughout 
the nation. There is ample reason for the belief that when 
Mr. Lincoln prepared that reply to Greeley he was confidently 
expecting an early victory of the Union Army under General 



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EMANCIPATION PROCLAMATION 231 

Pope, which he intended to follow with the proclamation of 
freedom for the slaves. That expectation seems to appear in 
his reply and serves to place that production among the mas- 
terpieces of epistolary literature. Instead of the victory 
which the President expected there came the second Bull Run 
disaster, which postponed the issuing of the proclamation to a 
later date. 

Less ominous than was the Greeley editorial, but more 
dramatic, was the visit of the delegation from Chicago and 
their interview with the President on the 13th of September. 
Representing a large convention of evangelical churches which 
had been held in Chicago, that delegation of very able and 
learned men visited Washington to remonstrate with the Pres- 
ident against his seeming purpose to protect and preserve 
slavery. The memorial they presented was claimed by them 
to be a revelation of the Divine Will respecting the duty of 
Government concerning slavery, and in language quite as 
strong as proper courtesy would permit, it demanded that 
the President issue an edict of freedom for the slaves. And 
while that impatient demand was being patiently listened to 
by the overburdened President, there lay only a few feet from 
the speakers, in the desk by which Mr. Lincoln was then 
standing, the Emancipation Proclamation which fifty-four 
days before he had submitted to his Cabinet and was at that 
moment holding in readiness to be issued as soon as there 
should be a victory in the jfield that would contribute to its 
good influence with the loyal people and in all the world. 

In his reply to that delegation the President could not 
disclose conditions as they then existed with reference to his 
intended Emancipation policy. But with the skill of a master 
of men and measures he replied to his distinguished and patri- 
otic visitors in a manner that left them all in uncertainty as 
to his intentions beyond the assurance which he gave that he 
would be obedient to Divine Will as that will was made known 
to him. 

The majesty and might of silence were shown by Presi- 



232 LATEST LIGHT ON ABRAHAM LINCOLN 

dent Lincoln's diplomatic concealment of his purposes respect- 
ing slavery from that delegation and from the watchful and 
anxious public. By the course he then pursued he held the 
people in loyalty to the nation and to its Government, and 
at the same time prepared the way for the wild joy that 
greeted the Emancipation Proclamation when it was issued 
only ten days later. 

Less ominous than was the Greeley episode, less dramatic 
than was the interview with the Chicago delegation, but far 
more pathetic than either of those events, was the action of 
the Massachusetts state convention only a few days before 
the proclamation was issued emphatically demanding such an 
edict of the Government and steadily refraining from endors- 
ing the administration of the President, who stood as it were 
with the proclamation in his hand anxiously waiting for favor- 
able conditions to announce it to the world. Oh! those two 
tragic months from July 22nd to September 22nd, 1862. How 
vividly their startling events reappear before my mind as I 
write these personal reminiscences ! As already stated, we 
were in all the loyal states in the midst of campaigns for the 
election of members of the lower branch of Congress when 
that Emancipation Proclamation was issued by the President 
and published in the newspapers of the world. To the North 
it was a blessed sunrise, the dawning of a new day. To the 
South it was a sunset ending in a dark night of faded hopes. 
It stimulated the enthusiasm of the antislavery element and 
aroused antagonism in the people of pro-slavery sentiments 
and tendencies. It divided the loyal forces and kindled to 
greater activity the forces of partisan agitation and strife. 
When it was under consideration in the Cabinet, Postmaster 
General Blair expressed his apprehension that it would be 
used against the administration at the coming election. To 
this the President — a wiser and more skillful politician than 
was any of his Cabinet — promptly replied: "They will use 
their cudgel on us any way and it will do us more harm 
not to issue the proclamation than to issue it." 



EMANCIPATION PROCLAMATION 233 

The claim that the war was conducted to destroy slavery 
rather than to save the nation was given increased force by 
the proclamation, but this was more than offset by the immense 
increase of enthusiasm of the antislavery people which it 
produced. That enthusiasm was shared by prominent and 
distinguished people as well as by the loyal masses, and added 
largely to the interest and activity of the Congressional cam-' 
paigns then in progress. 

One strong antislavery member of Congress of my 
acquaintance, as he was driving to a railroad station from a 
country appointment, when informed that the proclamation 
had been issued, sprang from the carriage in which he was 
riding, threw his shining beaver hat high into the air and 
kicked it into worthlessness as it came down, while he shouted 
like a soldier at charge of bayonet. He was a candidate 
for re-election and was being opposed by the conservative 
element of the Union party in his district, who claimed that 
his pronounced hostility to slavery was objectionable and 
embarrassing to the President. This claim, which seemed 
likely to cause his defeat, at once lost its force and it seemed 
to him as if the President were standing close beside him and 
silently requesting the people to continue him in Congress, 
which they gladly did. 

In some districts, however, the proclamation seemed to 
cause the defeat of the administration candidates; but in spite 
of all opposition and occasional reverses it marks the begin- 
ning of a new epoch in our history from which there has been 
no turning back. 

When the proclamation was published the Governors of 
the loyal states were in convention at Altoona, Penn., and 
after the adjournment of that gathering, sixteen of their num- 
ber, including the Governor of the new state of West Vir- 
ginia, sent the President a written, strong endorsement of 
his Emancipation Proclamation and policy, and on the 15th 
of December following, the National House of Representa- 
tives by a vote of seventy-eight to fifty-one, resolved: 



234 LATEST LIGHT ON ABRAHAM LINCOLN 

"That the proclamation of the President of the United 
States, of the date of 22nd September, 1862, is warranted by 
the Constitution, and that the poHcy of emancipation, as in- 
dicated in that proclamation, is well adapted to hasten the 
restoration of peace, was well chosen as a war measure, and 
is an exercise of power with proper regards for the rights of 
the States and the perpetuity of free government." ^" 

The proclamation of which I have here been writing was 
not, however, the document that gave freedom to the slaves. 
It was only the preliminary proclamation which announced 
that on the first of January following it would be followed 
by a proclamation of freedom if those who were in rebellion 
did not within one hundred days return to their allegiance to 
the Government. That preliminary proclamation did not ac- 
complish the emancipation of one slave, but it announced the 
coming of a proclamation that would emancipate millions of 
slaves, and it was the beginning of the emancipation policy 
of the administration from which there was never the least 
deviation by the President or by any branch or department of 
the national Government. 

Near the close of the year 1862, President Lincoln with 
very great care prepared his final Emancipation Proclamation 
which the preliminary proclamation declared would be issued 
on the 1st of January, 1863, if the Rebellion was still in 
progress. 

Tuesday, December 30th, the Cabinet convened to consider 
the final proclamation which was to give freedom to the slaves. 
This was the first and only time that document was before 
the Cabinet. It was at this meeting that Secretary Chase 
called the President's attention to the fitness of having in 
such an important document a suitable recognition of the 
Deity. This incident is not mentioned in either the Chase 
or Welles diaries, and statements of the affair in books and 
other publications either make no mention of the date when 
that suggestion was made by Mr. Chase, or they indicate that 

1° Globe, December 15, 1862, p. 92. 



EMANCIPATION PROCLAMATION 235 

the event occurred at a prior meeting. That, however, could 
not have been the case, for at all meetings of the Cabinet 
to consider emancipation previous to the meeting of Decem- 
ber 30th it was the preliminary proclamation that was con- 
sidered and the Chase amendment was not added to the 
preliminary proclamation but to the final document that freed 
the slaves. The "Draft of the Emancipation Proclamation of 
January First, 1863, as submitted to the Cabinet for Final 
Revision December 30th, 1862," is published in full in the 
Complete Works of Abraham Lincoln, Vol. VIII., pp. 155, 
156, 157, and does not contain the Chase amendment. That 
amendment was written by Mr. Chase at President Lincoln's 
request and is as follows: "And upon this act, sincerely be- 
lieved to be an act of justice, warranted by the Constitution 
upon military necessity, I invoke the considerate judgment 
of mankind and the gracious favor of Almighty God." " 

When that amendment was read by Mr. Chase at the 
meeting of the Cabinet it was at once accepted in full by 
Mr. Lincoln, who added the three words, "upon military 
necessity," and made it the closing paragraph of the procla- 
mation. And as that amendment is not in the copy of the 
proclamation which was considered by the Cabinet December 
30th, and is in the proclamation that was issued two days 
later, we are assured that it must have been presented and 
accepted by the President at that Cabinet meeting of Decem- 
ber 30th. 

In the news items published at that time there was no 
intimation of that meeting of the Cabinet for the "final re- 
vision" of the Emancipation Proclamation, and there was some 
apprehension throughout the country that the President 
would be induced to refrain from issuing the edict on the 
I St of January as was promised in the preliminary document. 
When New Year's Day arrived all things moved along as 
usual at the White House. The great popular reception was 
more brilliant and more largely attended than any like func- 

" Complete Works of Abraham Lincoln, Vol. VIII., p 164. 



236 LATEST LIGHT ON ABRAHAM LINCOLN 

tion under President Lincoln had been, and there was no 
mention of the momentous document that was known to be 
due at sometime during that day. The anxious nation, and 
the attentive w^orld, were Hstening to every cHck of the tele- 
graphic machinery which at length announced that the proc- 
lamation of freedom had been signed by President Lincoln. 
He had been severely taxed by the prolonged New Year's 
Day reception, and his right hand was swollen from greeting 
the thousands of people during several successive hours, but 
there is no trace of tremor in the signature "Abraham Lin- 
coln" which was that day attached to the Emancipation 
Proclamation that was the beginning of the end of slavery in 
"The land of the free, and the home of the brave." 

In the great centers of population there were cannon in readi- 
ness to boom forth the glad tidings, and before nightfall the 
rural districts also were alive with demonstrations of patri- 
otic delight. 

Mr. Lincoln repeatedly avowed his conviction that the 
Emancipation Proclamation was constitutional and valid and 
would never be declared otherwise. Before issuing it he 
stated many times and with great clearness and force that 
it was not only his right but his imperative duty to employ 
all necessary means to preserve the Union. His illustration 
of a surgeon "sacrificing a limb to save a life" was an un- 
equivocal declaration of his belief in the validity of the 
measures that destroyed slavery to save the nation. In the 
final Emancipation Proclamation he expressed the belief that 
that document was "warranted by the constitution upon mili- 
tary necessity" and that belief was many times expressed by 
him in clear and forceful language. Six months after the 
final proclamation was issued, in a letter to General S. A. 
Hurlbut, dated July 31st, 1863, he said of the proclamation: 
"I think it is valid in law and will be so held by the courts. 
. . . Those who shall have tasted actual freedom I believe 
can never be slaves or quasi-slaves again." " 

Incomplete Works of Abraham Lincoln, Vol. IX., p. 22. 



EMANCIPATION PROCLAMATION 237 

August 26th, 1863, in the Conkling letter he said to the 
opponents of his administration in IlHnois: "You dislike the 
Emancipation Proclamation, and perhaps would have it re- 
tracted. You say it is unconstitutional. I think differently. 
I think the Constitution invests its commander-in-chief with 
the law of war in time of war. The most that can be said — 
if so much — is that slaves are property. Is there — has there 
ever been — any question that by the law of war, property, 
both of enemies and friends, may be taken when needed? 
And is it not needed whenever taking it helps us, or hurts the 
enemy." " 

Mr. Lincoln's 

Fidelity to Emancipation 

was one of the most beautiful features of his life. From the 
22nd of July, 1862, when he first submitted the preliminary 
proclamation to the Cabinet, he never wavered in his adher- 
ence to the policy that gave freedom to the slaves. Of neces- 
sity that policy to be effective had to include the enlistment 
and training of colored soldiers and their participation in 
military activities, the employment by the government of 
colored laborers and care for dependent colored people. 

All this and more of a kindred character President Lincoln 
accepted without hesitation or reserve and supported with all 
the authority and power with which his great office was 
invested. 

He did not enter upon that policy rashly nor with haste. 
Before his first inauguration he realized that Emancipation 
might become a necessity and he conferred freely, though in 
strict confidence, with Hon. Robert J. Walker relative to the 
matter before he had been President three-fourths of a year. 

On the 2 1st of November, 1861, in an interview with 

Governor Walker and Mr. James R. Gilmore, in disclosing 

the possibility of an edict of freedom, he said: "If such a 

proclamation should once be issued we should have to stand 

"Complete Works of Abraham Lincoln, Vol. IX., p. 98. 



238 LATEST LIGHT ON ABRAHAM LINCOLN 

by it and refuse any settlement with the South that did not 
recognize the freedom of the slave." " 

That was just like Abraham Lincoln, and during succeed- 
ing years that statement to Walker and Gilmore was followed 
by many declarations of a similar character, and by such 
measures as were needed to make them effective. 

On the evening after he had signed the final Emancipation 
Proclamation, in a conversation with Mr. Colfax, President 
Lincoln declared: "The South had fair warning that if they 
did not return to their duty I should strike at the pillar of 
their strength. The promise must now be kept and I shall 
never recall one word." 

August 26th, 1863, in the Conkling letter before men- 
tioned, he said: "The proclamation as law either is valid or it 
is not valid. If it is not valid it needs no retraction. If it is 
valid it cannot be retracted any more than the dead can be 
brought to life. . . . Negroes, like other people, act upon 
motives. Why should they do anything for us if we will 
do nothing for them? If they stake their lives for us they 
must be prompted by the strongest motives, even the promise 
of freedom. And that promise being made must be kept." ^^ 

December 8th, 1863, President Lincoln in his annual mes- 
sage to Congress, in referring to the messages relating to 
slavery, indited these weighty words: "Those laws and proc- 
lamations were enacted and put forth for the purpose of 
aiding in the suppression of the Rebellion. To give them 
their fullest effect, there had to be a pledge for their mainte- 
nance. In my judgment they have aided, and will further aid, 
the cause for which they were intended. To now abandon 
them would be not only to relinquish a lever of power, but 
would also be a cruel and an astonishing breach of faith. I 
may add, at this point, that while I remain in my present 
position I shall not attempt to retract or modify the Emanci- 
pation Proclamation; nor shall I return to slavery any per- 

1* Personal Recollections of Abraham Lincoln, p. 60. 
Incomplete Works of Abraham Lincoln, Vol. IX., pp. 99-100. 



EMANCIPATION PROCLAMATION 239 

son who is free by the terms of that proclamation, or by any 
of the acts of Congress." " 

Accompanying the annual message from which the fore- 
going is quoted, President Lincoln sent to Congress a proc- 
lamation of amnesty which he had issued, in which he re- 
quired all insurgents desiring pardon to take and subscribe to 

the following oath: "I, , do solemnly swear, in presence 

of Almighty God, that I will henceforth faithfully support, 
protect, and defend the Constitution of the United States, and 
the union of the States thereunder; and that I will, in like 
manner, abide by and faithfully support all acts of Congress 
passed during the existing Rebellion with reference to slaves, 
so long and so far as not repealed, modified, or held void by 
Congress, or by decision of the Supreme Court; and that I 
will, in like manner, abide by and faithfully support all proc- 
lamations of the President made during the existing Rebellion 
having reference to slaves, so long and so far as not modified 
or declared void by decision of the Supreme Court. So help 
me God."" 

July 9th, 1864, in a letter to Horace Greeley, he stated 
that any terms of peace to be considered by him must include 
"the restoration of the Union and the abandonment of 
slavery." 

July 1 8th, 1864, in a proclamation "to whom it may con- 
cern," he repeated the statement that terms of peace must 
include "the abandonment of slavery," and the parole prepared 
by him about the same time required those who should seek 
parole to pledge their honors not to hinder nor discourage the 
enlistment or employment by the Union Government of col- 
ored soldiers. 

August 15th, 1864, in an interview with John T. Mills, 
he declared that he "should deserve to be damned in time and 
eternity" if he should "return to slavery the black warriors 
of the Union Army," and added, "come what will I will keep 

1® Complete Works of Abraham Lincoln, Vol. IX., p. 249. 
^" Ibid., p. 220. 



240 LATEST LIGHT ON ABRAHAM LINCOLN 

my faith with friend and foe. . . . No hunmu puwci can 
subdue this Rebellion without the use of the Emancipation 
policy and every other policy calculated to weaken the moral 
and physical forces of the Rebellion." 

December 6th, 1864, after his re-election, in his annual 
message to Congress, the President made the following re- 
markable declaration: "In presenting the abandonment of 
armed resistance to the national authority on the part of the 
insurgents as the only indispensable condition to ending the 
war on the part of the Government, I retract nothing hereto- 
fore said as to slavery. I repeat the declaration made a year 
ago, that 'while I remain in my present position I shall not 
attempt to retract or modify the Emancipation Proclamation, 
nor shall I return to slavery any person who is free by the 
terms of that proclamation, or by any of the acts of Con- 
gress.' 

"If the people should, by whatever mode or means, make 
it :m executive duty to re-enslave such persons, another, and 
not I must be their instrument to perform it." ^® 

In publishing this statement by President Lincoln, Mr. 
Blaine in his great work says: "This was fair notice by Mr. 
Lincoln to all the world that so long as he was President 
the absolute validity of the Proclamation would be maintained 
at all hazards." '' 

January 31st, 1865, in his instructions to Seward, who 
was to confer with the Confederate Commissioners at Hamp- 
ton Roads, the President said: "No receding by the Executive 
of the United States, on the slavery question, from the position 
assumed thereon in the late annual message to Congress and 
in preceding documents." 

February 3rd, 1865, in his own and Mr. Seward's interview 
with those Commissioners "the President announced thr he 
must not be expected to depart from the positions he had 
heretofore assumed in his Proclamation of Emancipation and 

18 Complete Works of Abraham Lincoln, Vol. X., p. 310. 
10 Twenty Years of Congress, Vol. I., p. 535. 



EMANCIPATION PROCLAMATION 241 

other documents as these positions were reiterated in his last 
annual message." 

During that same interview at Hampton Roads, the 
Southern Commissioners were informed that Congress on the 
31st of December had, by the requisite majority voted to sub- 
mit to the states a constitutional amendment abolishing slavery 
throughout the Union, and that it would undoubtedly be ap- 
proved by three-fourths of the states and become a part of 
the national organic law. This was startling information for 
the Southern Commissioners, for they had not before learned 
of the result of the vote in the House of Representatives, and 
like those who voted against the amendment in Congress, they 
were cherishing the hope that the proposition would fail to 
receive the requisite two-thirds affirmative vote. 

Hon. Alexander H. Stephens, one of the Confederate 
Commissioners, in his accc^^nt of this interview states that 
President Lincoln said to the Commissioners that "he never 
would change or modify the terms of the proclamation in the 
slightest particular." ^° 

February loth, 1865, in his message to the House of Rep- 
resentatives, giving desired information respecting the Hamp- 
ton Roads Conference, President Lincoln said: "The whole 
substance of the instructions to the Secretary of State, here- 
inbefore cited, was stated and insisted upon, and nothing was 
said inconsistent therewith." "^ 

April 3rd, 1865, during his brief visit at Richmond, upon 
seeing large numbers of the colored people kneeling before 
him, he said: "Do not kneel to me; that is not right. You 
must kneel to God only, and thank Him for the liberty you 
will hereafter enjoy. I am but God's humble instrument; 
but you may rest assured that as long as I live no one will 
put a shackle on your lim.bs, and you shall have the rights 
which God has given to every other free citizen of this 
Republic." (Admiral Porter's report.) 

20 War Between the States, Vol. II., pp. 610-611. 

*A Complete Works of Abraham Lincoln, Vol. XI., p. 28. 



242 LATEST LIGHT ON ABRAHAM LINCOLN 

In the final Emancipation Proclamation, President Lincoln 
promised to "recognize and maintain the freedom" of those 
who should be made free by that edict, and now standing in 
the street of the captured capital of the insurgents, with the 
Rebellion falling into ruins all about him, he solemnly and in 
the name of God renewed that promise to the bewildered and 
black throng before him. The assurance he then gave them 
was the climax of all he had before said relative to the per- 
petuity of their freedom, and the scene was suitable for the 
closing days of the life of the great Emancipator. It will 
richly reward the reader carefully to study the foregoing 
quotations and to note the fidelity and care with which Mr. 
Lincoln, as lawyer and statesman, closes up every avenue by 
which hostile influences could creep in and interfere with the 
efflcacy of the Emancipation Proclamation. 

Very wide publicity has been given to the misleading state- 
ment that at the Hampton Roads Conference, February 3rd, 
1865, President Lincoln handed Vice-President Alexander H. 
Stephens — one of the Confederate Commissioners — a blank 
sheet of paper, promising as he did so, to sign any terms of 
peace with the restoration of the LTnion which Mr. Stephens 
would write upon it. 

This statement has received such a measure of verifica- 
tion that it has been given general credence and has led to 
the impression that at that Conference Mr. Lincoln offered to 
compromise with the South respecting slavery. We do not 
know with certainty that such an event occurred, but we do 
know with absolute certainty that Mr. Lincoln at that con- 
ference assured the Confederate Commissioners that there 
would be no receding from the position the Union Government 
had taken respecting slavery. This was stated very clearly 
by him before the Conference met, was repeated by him dur- 
ing the Conference, as Mr. Stephens himself states, and it was 
included by Mr. Lincoln in his report to Congress relative to 
the interview with the Confederate Commissioners. There- 
fore, if Mr. Lincoln made Mr. Stephens the proposition before 



EMANCIPATION PROCLAMATION 243 

recited, Mr. Stephens knew at the time that it did not include 
any suggestion of compromise respecting slavery. 

But while President Lincoln expressed his purpose to 
adhere strictly to the Emancipation policy of the General Gov- 
ernment he assured the Commissioners that he would favor 
the appropriation by Congress of four hundred million dollars 
as compensation to the South for financial loss sustained by 
the freeing of the slaves. He told the Commissioners that he 
believed he could secure favorable action of Congress upon 
that proposition, and had his offer at that time been accepted 
it would not only have accomplished the immediate cessation 
of hostilities and thus prevented the great loss and suffering 
of the months that followed, but it would also have enabled 
the South to retire from the struggle in better financial con- 
dition than was the North. But acting under their instruction 
from Jefferson Davis, those Commissioners were not at liberty 
even to consider Mr. Lincoln's suggestion. 

Mr, Lincoln, when he adopted the Emancipation policy, 

Was Not Certain 

that it would be helpful to the Union cause. He knew it would 
arouse into more violent activity the hostile influences arrayed 
against him, and he hoped it would stimulate the zeal of all 
friends of the Government. 

September 24th, 1862, at a serenade given on the occasion 
of the preliminary proclamation which had been issued two 
days before, President Lincoln said: "What I did I did after 
a very full deliberation and under a very heavy and solemn 
sense of responsibility. I can only trust in God I have made 
no mistake." 

In his annual message to Congress, December 8th, 1863, 
Mr. Lincoln, in reviewing this period of his administration, 
remarks: "The policy of emancipation and of employing 
black soldiers, gave to the future a new aspect, about which 
hope and fear and doubt contended in uncertain conflict." 



244 LATEST LIGHT ON ABRAHAM LINCOLN 

There is a graphic picture of that conflict in the account of 
President Lincoln's interview with the delegation from Chicago 
on the 13th of September, 1862, during which he said: "What 
good would a proclamation of emancipation from me do, 
especially as we are now situated? I do not want to issue a 
document that the whole world will see must necessarily be 
inoperative, like the Pope's bull against the comet. Would 
my word free the slaves, when I cannot even enforce the 
Constitution in the rebel States? It would help somewhat at 
the North, though not so much, I fear, as you and those 
you represent imagine. . . . I am not so sure we could do 
much with the blacks. If we were to arm them, I fear that 
in a few weeks the arms would be in the hands of the rebels. 
. . . There are fifty thousand bayonets in the LTnion arms 
from the Border slave states. It would be a serious matter 
if, in consequence of a proclamation such as you desire, they 
should go over to the rebels." ^^ 

Summing up all these apprehensions and also the hopes 
which he cherished, the utmost that Mr. Lincoln could con- 
fidently anticipate as to the influence on the Union cause of 
a policy of emancipation, is stated by him in his review of 
these events in the Hodges letter of April 4th, 1864, in the 
following: "In choosing it (emancipation) I hoped for greater 
gain than loss, but of this I was not entirely confident." ^^ 

But, notwithstanding his misgivings at the time respecting 
the influence of emancipation upon the Union cause, after it 
had been fairly tried, Mr. Lincoln gave strong testimony to 
the helpfulness of that policy in the nation's struggle for 
existence. 

August 26th, 1863, in the Conkling letter he said: "Some 
of the commanders of our armies in the field who have given 
us our most important successes, believe the Emancipation 
policy and the use of the colored troops constitute the heaviest 
blow yet dealt to the Rebellion, and that at least one of these 

22 Complete Works of Abraham Lincoln, Vol. VIII., pp. 30, 32-32- 

23 Ibid., Vol. X., p. 65. 



EMANCIPATION PROCLAMATION 245 

important successes could not have been achieved when it was, 
without the aid of black soldiers." 

And in the same letter is the following graphic and thrill- 
ing statement: "Peace does not appear so distant as it did, 
I hope it will come soon, and come to stay; and so come as 
to be worth the keeping in all future time. . . . And then 
there will be some black men who can remember that with 
silent tongue, and clenched teeth, and steady eye, and well 
poised bayonet, they have helped mankind on to this great 
consummation, while I fear there will be some white ones 
unable to forget that with malignant heart and deceitful speech 
they strove to hinder it." "* 

December 8th, 1863, after the employment of colored sol- 
diers in the army had been for eleven months in operation, 
in his annual message to Congress, the President stated that 
a hundred thousand colored soldiers were connected with the 
Union Army, that they were "as good soldiers as any," that 
"no servile insurrection, or tendency to violence or cruelty, 
has marked the measures of emancipation and arming the 
blacks," and that their employment by the Government had 
taken from the resources of the Rebellion and added to the 
strength and success of the Union forces. "Tennessee and 
Arkansas," said he, "have been substantially cleared of in- 
surgent control and influential citizens in each, owners of 
slaves and advocates of slavery at the beginning of the Re- 
bellion now declare openly for emancipation in their respective 
states." "In Maryland and Missouri the people who had 
been favorable to slavery and to its unhindered extension 
into the territories of the nation, only dispute now as to the 
best mode of removing it within their own limits." And 
to these statements of achievement under the Emancipa- 
tion policy with seeming relief and gratitude, he added: "The 
crisis which threatened to defeat the friends of the Union is 
passed." ^^ 

2* Complete Works of Abraham Lincoln, Vol. IX., pp. 101-102. 

22 Ibid., pp. 246-247. 



246 LATEST LIGHT ON ABRAHAM LINCOLN 

April 4th, 1864 — four months after the beforementioned 
message to Congress — in the Hodges letter Mr. Lincoln said: 
"More than a year of trial now shows no loss by it in our 
foreign relations, none in our home popular sentiment, none in 
our white military force — no loss by it any how or any where. 
On the contrary, it shows a gain of quite a hundred and thirty 
thousand soldiers, seamen and laborers. These are palpable 
facts about which, as facts, there can be no caviling. We 
have the men; and we could not have had them without the 
measure." ^^ 

August 15th, 1864, after the Emancipation policy had been 
in operation more than a year and a half, in an interview 
with General John T. Mills, President Lincoln said: "There 
are now in the service of the L^nited States nearly one hun- 
dred and fifty thousand able-bodied colored men, most of 
them under arms, defending and acquiring Union territory. 
. . . Abandon all the posts now garrisoned by black men, 
take one hundred and fifty thousand men from our side and 
put them in the battlefield or cornfield against us, and we would 
be compelled to abandon the war in three weeks. . . . No 
human power can subdue this Rebellion without the use of 
the Emancipation policy and every other policy calculated to 
weaken the moral and physical force of the Rebellion. Free- 
dom has given us one hundred and fifty thousand men raised 
on Southern soil. It will give us more yet. Just so much it 
has subtracted from the enemy, and. Instead of alienating the 
South there are now evidences of a fraternal feeling growing 
up between our men and the rank and file of the rebel soldiers. 
Let my enemies prove to the country that the destruction of 
slavery is not necessary to the restoration of the Union. I 
will abide the issue." " 

Many strong and stubborn influences combined to delay 
the adoption of the Emancipation policy, but Mr. Lincoln 
was not chargeable with that delay. LTpon those who from 

26 Complete Works of Abraham Lincoln, Vol. X., p. 65. 

27 Ibid., p. 191. 



EMANCIPATION PROCLAMATION 247 

whatever motive opposed emancipation rested the responsi- 
bihty for the prolonged withholding by the President of the 
proclamation of freedom. As soon as he could do so legally 
and effectively Mr. Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclama- 
tion. Respecting this in his interview with George Thomp- 
son, he said: "It is my conviction that, had the proclamation 
been issued even six months earlier than it was, public senti- 
ment would not have sustained it. Just so, as to the subse- 
quent action in reference to enlisting blacks in the Border 
States. The step taken sooner, could not, in my judgment, 
have been carried out. . . . We have seen this great revo- 
lution in public sentiment slowly but surely progressing so 
that, when the final action came, the opposition was not strong 
enough to defeat the purpose." ^® 

But, although that "opposition" could not "defeat the 
purpose," it could and did delay the issuing of the proclama- 
tion of which Mr. Lincoln said: "It is the central act of my 
administration and the great event of the nineteenth cen- 
tury." 

But important and helpful as was that proclamation it 
could not make any portion of the nation free territory. It 
applied to slaves but not to slavery. It freed all the slaves 
in the insurgent states and it pledged the national Govern- 
ment to "recognize and maintain" their freedom. But it 
could not repeal nor modify the constitutions and laws of those 
states granting the right to hold slaves. Slaves were re- 
garded and dealt with as property, and a^ such they could 
be given freedom as an act of war. But the right to hold 
slaves in those states being granted by state constitutions and 
laws would remain untouched by the proclamation and would 
be in full force upon the return of peace and the restoration 
of normal conditions. Those who had been made free by the 
proclamation could not be again enslaved, but others could 
be under the constitutions and laws authorizing slavery. The 
general Government as an act of war could take all the horses 
28 Six Months in the White House, p. Tj. 



248 LATEST LIGHT ON ABRAHAM LINCOLN 

owned in the insurgent states, but it could not deny the people 
of those states the right to hold property in horses after peace 
was restored. No more could the General Government deny 
or abridge the right to hold property in slaves in the insurgent 
states when there was no "military necessity" for so doing. 
Under the rights "reserved to the states" by the national Con- 
stitution the property rights of the property in times of peace 
were untouched by the Emancipation Proclamation. Pro- 
slavery people in the insurgent states who were opposed to 
emancipation understood all this and declared their purpose 
to re-establish slavery when peace should be restored. 

This purpose was expressed by Senator Garrett Davis of 
Kentucky, when, in a speech in the senate, he said: "If j^ou 
should liberate the slaves in the rebellious States, the moment 
you reorganize the white inhabitants of these states, as states 
of the Union, they would reduce these slaves again to a state 
of slavery, or they would expel them, or hunt them like wild 
beasts and exterminate them." 

In President Lincoln's strong testimony to the validity and 
effectiveness of the Emancipation Proclamation, he never 
stated nor intimated that it accomplished all that was in his 
heart to achieve respecting slavery. He regarded and declared 
slavery to be "the root of the Rebellion," and he was fully 
convinced that the future peace and prosperity of the nation 
required that it be utterly exterminated. But he did not issue 
the Emancipation Proclamation with the expectation that it 
would destroy slavery, although he cherished the hope that 
it would be followed by other measures that would accomplish 
that result. 

Therefore, in the preliminary proclamation President Lin- 
coln stated his purpose to recommend in his next annual mes- 
sage to Congress such action as would tend to promote the 
abolition of slavery by the loyal slave-holding states. And 
from that day he was untiring in his efforts to encourage and 
aid such action in states not included in the Emancipation 
Proclamation. 



VIII 
CONSTITUTIONAL AMENDMENT 

WHEN on the 8th of December, 1863, the Thirty- 
eighth Congress convened for its first session the 
Emancipation Proclamation had been in force for 
more than eleven months. All of the members of the House 
of Representatives of that Congress had been chosen by the 
people after the preliminary proclamation was issued, and, 
as already stated, in some cases the proclamation seemed to 
have exerted an influence on the election unfavorable to the 
administration. But during the year and more between the 
election and the convening of Congress there had been great 
advance in antislavery sentiment throughout the loyal states, 
and the achievements of the army with its addition of colored 
troops were proving the wisdom of the Emancipation policy. 
On the other hand, the efforts by compensation and other 
methods to secure the abolition of slavery by the action of 
slave holding, loyal states had not met with encouraging suc- 
cess, and gave little promise of accomplishing the destruction 
of slavery. But the purpose to remove the evil that all knew 
had caused the Rebellion and to leave no cancerous root to 
cause future trouble had become strong and intense in all the 
free states and was rapidly increasing in the loyal portions of 
the South. 

The President in his annual message to Congress gave a 
glowing account of the workings of emancipation and espe- 
cially the employment of colored troops in the Union Army; 
and in discussing the proclamation of freedom he made the 
famous declaration that he would never "return to slavery 
any person who is free by the terms of that proclamation." 
He referred very briefly, but earnestly, to his favorite propo- 
sition for compensation to "the states not included in the 

249 



250 LATEST LIGHT ON ABRAHAM LINCOLN 

Emancipation Proclamation" wliich should abolish slavery, 
and submitted an Amnesty Proclamation he had issued for 
insurgents who wished to resume allegiance to the National 
Government. 

Thus the historic Thirty-eighth Congress began its first 
session in an atmosphere surcharged with hostility to slavery, 
and on the 14th of December — as early as possible after Con- 
gress convened — two Constitutional amendments abolishing 
and prohibiting slavery were introduced in the House, the first 
by Hon. James M. Ashley of Ohio, and the other by Hon. 
James F. Wilson of Iowa. 

No action of a similar character was taken in the Senate 
until after the Holiday recess, when on the i ith of January 
Senator J. B. Henderson of Missouri introduced a joint reso- 
lution as a Constitutional Amendment abolishing slavery, and 
nearly a month later, on the 8th of February, Senator Sum- 
ner of Massachusetts introduced a similar joint resolution 
which was referred to the Committee on the Judiciary, as the 
measure introduced by Senator Henderson had been. 

Senator Sumner asked to have his proposition referred 
to a special committee of which he was chairman, but finally 
acquiesced — though reluctantly — in its assignment to the Ju- 
diciary Committee. The very courteously worded rivalry be- 
tween those two committees seems to have hastened the 
consideration of the two propositions, for after only two days, 
Senator Lyman Trumbull of Illinois, chairman of the Judi- 
ciary Committee, reported a joint resolution differing in its 
phraseology from both of the resolutions which had been 
referred to his committee. Mr. Sumner clung to the phrase 
"equality before the law," which he had copied into his reso- 
lution from the constitution of revolutionary France, but the 
consensus of opinion in the Senate was against him and the 
resolution as reported by Senator Trumbull was accepted for 
consideration, being in language almost identical with the 
Ordinance of 1787. The following is the Constitutional 
Amendment thus reported and considered by Congress from 



CONSTITUTIONAL AMENDMENT 251 

the loth of February, 1864, to the 31st of January, 1865, 
when it was passed and became part of the national Consti- 
tution, by being approved by the legislatures of three-fourths 
of the States: 

Article XIII 

Section i. Neither slavery nor involuntary servitude, ex- 
cept as a punishment for crime, whereof the party shall have 
been duly convicted, shall exist within the United States, or 
any place subject to their jurisdiction. 

Section 2. Congress shall have power to enforce this 
article by appropriate legislation. 

A Presidential election was soon to be held and it was 
the purpose of the republican leaders to make this amendment 
an issue in that election, and to ask that it be approved by the 
people either as having been favorably acted upon by Congress 
or as still pending there. 

With this in view the Senators and Representatives who 
favored and those who opposed the measure improved the 
succeeding weeks in preparation for the battle of giants that 
all knew would occur when it should be brought up for con- 
sideration and action. There was never any doubt that the 
amendment would receive the requisite two-thirds vote in the 
senate, but our statesmen were making history and were also 
preparing for the great struggle during the Presidential cam- 
paign. Therefore, when on the 28th of March, 1864, Senator 
Trumbull opened the debate on the measure he was followed 
by other senators whose speeches were of great erudition and 
strength. 

On the 8th of April, 1864, the amendment passed the 
senate by a vote of 38 to 6, and was soon after taken up 
in the house where, as Mr. Blaine says, "Mr. Ashley of Ohio, 
by common consent assumed parliamentary charge of the 
measure." ^ 

As there was at that time no probability of the amendment 
receiving the requisite two-thirds vote in the House, its con- 
* Twenty Years of Congress, Vol. I., p. 507. 



252 LATEST LIGHT ON ABRAHAM LINCOLN 

sideratlon in that body was conducted with a view to its 
influence upon the Presidential campaign then in progress. 
Only three days — May 31st, June 14th and 15th — were given 
to its discussion, which was of dynamic force and effective- 
ness. On the 7th of June — between the beginning of the dis- 
cussion on the 31st of May and its resumption on the 14th 
of June — President Lincoln was unanimously renominated by 
a national convention which with wild enthusiasm endorsed 
the amendment and applauded every favorable reference to 
the subject. 

On the 15th of June the vote was taken and resulted in 
yeas 94, noes 64 — a large but not a two-thirds majority. So 
the amendment seemed for the time disposed of and hope- 
lessly lost, until General Ashley, having the measure in charge, 
changed his vote to the negative and so gained the right, of 
which he at once availed himself, to move a reconsideration, 
and thus to place the measure on the docket and keep it 
before the house for further consideration and action. 

This skillful parliamentary maneuver was a stunning sur- 
prise to the opponents of the proposed amendment, and none 
of its friends were expecting such action. The great interest 
awakened by the proposition soon subsided and the measure 
seemed to be forgotten when, on the 28th of June — thirteen 
days after this unsuccessful vote — Mr. Holman, a democratic 
member from Indiana, inquired whether the motion to re- 
consider would be called up during that session of Congress. 
This question at once elicited the attention of every member 
and all listened intently as General Ashley replied: 'T do not 
propose to call the motion up during the present session of 
Congress, but as the record has been made up we will go to 
the country on the issue thus presented . . . and when the 
verdict of the people shall have been rendered next November, 
I trust this Congress will return determined to engraft that 
verdict into the National Constitution." The scene that fol- 
lowed this episode can never be forgotten by those who wit- 
nessed it and realized its significance. There was profound 



CONSTITUTIONAL AMENDMENT 253 

silence and scarce a movement as the members by this answer 
were brought to reaHze that the Constitutional Amendment 
was still before them and would be passed upon by the people 
before it would again be brought before them for decision. 
Those who favored it believed the issue would be helpful 
to the campaign for President Lincoln's re-election, and those 
who were opposed to it were apprehensive that making it 
an issue at the Presidential election would be harmful to their 
chance for continuance in Congress. All realized that the 
trend of events and evolution of public sentiment were against 
slavery, but to secure the adoption of the amendment by that 
Congress was a task of such huge proportions that it required 
great courage and determination to undertake it. What ren- 
dered the task appalling was that it would require 122 
votes to pass the amendment if all members of the House 
should be present and vote, and that only 94 votes — 28 less 
than that required number — had been cast in its favor on the 
15th of June. And the additional votes required to pass the 
measure had to be secured among the 64 members who voted 
against it or the 24 who did not vote. It was not a struggle 
to win the votes of ordinary men, but a contest for the con- 
quest of men of mettle, as it usually requires superior strength 
of personality and gifts of leadership to become a member 
of Congress. 

Of far greater force and more stubborn than any other 
obstacle was the prejudice against the Negro race which was 
entertained by many people. That prejudice was largely the 
product of slavery and had been built up into great strength 
and was intensified into bitterness by antislavery teachings and 
movements, and especially by this effort to accomplish the 
utter destruction of slavery in the nation. Added to this 
was the hostility to abolitionists and their teachings and the 
unwise efforts by which some members of Congress were 
moved to oppose the proposed amendment. 

But of all the mountains of difficulty which the proponents 
of the measure encountered and were required to surmount, 



254 LATEST LIGHT ON ABRAHAM LINCOLN 

the greatest was the intense partisan hostiHty to the proposed 
abolition of slavery. The solid republican membership of the 
House was for the amendment, and the only opposition it 
encountered came from the democrats, who seemed to regard 
the fate of their party as involved in the struggle. Under 
the leadership of Calhoun and his associates and followers, 
the democratic party — the party of Jefferson — had become 
so fully committed and so thoroughly identified with slavery 
that the continuance of that institution seemed necessary to 
the maintenance of the future existence and integrity of that 
party. And the future political hopes of democrats were de- 
pendent upon the continuance and success of the democratic 
party. This applied to war democrats who had united with 
the Union party to support the Goverment against the Re- 
bellion, with the expectation of resuming their allegiance to 
the democratic party when normal conditions were again 
restored. To all such, as well as to those democrats who 
adhered to their party during the war, the destruction of 
slavery seemed to imperil their party and their own future 
political life. It was impossible to prevent the amendment 
from appearing as a party measure. It was known to all that 
it was strongly favored by the President and that, as already 
stated in this chapter, it had been unanimously endorsed by 
the great Baltimore Convention with scarcely less enthusiasm 
than that which greeted the President's renomination and the 
approval of his administration. Not only was it treated with 
enthusiastic hospitality by the convention, but throughout the 
Presidential campaign it was made an issue before the people, 
as was forecast by General Ashley in the House on the 28th 
of June. All this was helpful to secure in November the 
verdict of the people for a Constitutional Amendment abol- 
ishing and forever prohibiting slavery, but it intensified par- 
tisan hostility to that movement and made it more difficult 
when Congress reassembled to induce democratic members 
to change their attitudes to the question and vote for the 
amendment then pending in the House. 



CONSTITUTIONAL AMENDMENT 255 

My recollections of the incidents connected with that long 
and arduous struggle for the destruction of slavery by Con- 
stitutional Amendment are as distinct as is my remembrance 
of the events of yesterday. I was upon terms of close per- 
sonal friendship with members of Congress who had been 
lifelong democrats, but were loyal and true to the Government 
during the Rebellion, and I heard from them many emphatic 
declarations of their apprehensions that the destruction of 
slavery would require such a new alignment of political 
parties throughout the nation as would make uncertain the 
future public career of any democrat who voted for the pend- 
ing Constitutional Amendment. 

The extent to which loyal democrats were disturbed by 
the antislavery trend of the times is indicated in a letter 
addressed to President Lincoln by Mr. Charles D. Robinson, 
an editor of Wisconsin. Mr. Robinson was a staunch Union 
man of sterling character and a zealous adherent and cham- 
pion of the democratic party. His support of the Government 
in its efforts to suppress the Rebellion had been unequivocal 
and cordial. But after Mr. Lincoln had been renominated 
on a platform that endorsed the Constitutional Amendment 
and had in his Niagara Falls correspondence declared that 
there would be no receding from the positions taken relative 
to slavery, Mr. Robinson, on the 7th of August, 1864, sent 
the President a frank and manly statement of the difficulties 
he was confronting in his efforts to remain loyal to the 
administration in its attitude to slavery. In that letter he 
stated that he had hitherto sustained the President's Emanci- 
pation Policy on the ground that it deprived the South of its 
laborers and thus undermined the strength of the Rebellion. 
But he declared that the attitude of the Government toward 
slavery "puts the whole war question on a new basis, and 
takes us war democrats clear off our feet, leaving us no 
ground to stand upon. If we sustain the war and the war 
policy, does it not demand the changing of our party policies ? 
I venture to write you this letter, then, not for the purpose 



\ 



256 LATEST LIGHT ON ABRAHAM LINCOLN 

of finding fault with your policy — for that you have a right 
to fix upon without consulting any of us — but in the hope 
that you may suggest some interpretation of it, as well as 
make it tenable ground on which we war democrats may 
stand — preserve our party consistency — support the Govern- 
ment — and continue to carry also to its support those large 
numbers of our old political friends who have stood by us 
up to this time." ^ 

Among those democratic members of Congress who voted 
against the amendment there were many in precisely the con- 
dition described by Mr. Robinson in the foregoing letter. 
They realized that their party was so committed to the de- 
fense of slavery that for them to vote for the proposed 
amendment would be to commit political suicide. And yet to 
induce men to do that was the only method by which demo- 
cratic members of Congress who had voted against that 
amendment could be prevailed upon to change their votes and 
support the measure. 

That was the situation which in the campaign for the 
passing of the amendment by that House of Representatives 
had to be faced* from the adjournment of Congress on the 
Fourth of July, 1864, until the final vote was taken on the 
31st of January, 1865. Unfortunately for all the interests 
involved, the Wade-Davis embroglio, mentioned elsewhere in 
this volume, sprang up among the Union leaders immediately 
after the adjournment of Congress and seemed for a time 
likely to defeat the Union party. But the Constitutional 
Amendment served to hold the administration forces together 
and to overcome the disintegrating influence of that inexcus- 
able revolt. Some extremely radical antislavery men, who 
were ever ready to antagonize and embarrass the President, 
because of his conservative nature and policies, were kept 
from participating in that embroglio by their great interest 
in the Constitutional Amendment, the adoption of which they 
knew would be impossible without Mr. Lincoln's re-election. 

2 Abraham Lincoln, A History, Vol. IX., p. 214. 



CONSTITUTIONAL AMENDMENT 257 

And every favorable issue in the field, every victory won, 
every encouraging prospect contributed to the strength of the 
campaign for the President's re-election and the endorsement 
by the people of that vital measure. 

At the time the vote was taken on the 15th of June it 
was known that Henry Winter Davis of Maryland and 
Francis P. Blair of Missouri would vote for the amendment 
whenever their votes would secure its passage, and there were 
several other members who voted against the measure at that 
time of whom the same was believed to be true. But the 
task of securing a sufficient number of such changes to pass 
the amendment was herculean and very few of its supporters 
hoped for success. 

By parliamentary courtesy the campaign for votes was 
continued under General Ashley's management and was given 
his constant attention. His own re-election was regarded 
so fully assured that his great gifts of leadership could be 
safely employed almost wholly in the interest of the amend- 
ment. Having an extensive acquaintance with members of 
the House and being a newspaper reporter I was, as General 
Ashley's secretary, constantly engaged in aiding him in the 
great work which, as Mr. Blaine says, "by common consent" 
was entrusted to him. Every member of the House and 
Senate who had favored the measure was interested in the 
movement to secure its passage at the next session of Con- 
gress and prominent men in all walks of life and in all the 
loyal states gave the proposition their earnest and energetic 
support. But all plans and efforts to win votes for the measure 
were kept constantly under the direction of General Ashley, 
in whose wisdom and ability for such work every friend of 
the amendment in and out of Congress had unquestioning 
confidence. Mr. Blaine says: "During the contest Mr. Ashley 
devoted himself with unswerving fidelity and untiring zeal" 
to the work of securing the passage of the amendment. . . . 
"He made a forceful speech in support of the amendment, 
but the chief value of his work did not consist in speaking, 



258 LATEST LIGHT ON ABRAHAM LINCOLN 

but in his watchful care of the measure, in the quick and 
intuitive judgment with which he discerned every man on 
the democratic side of the House who felt anxious as to the 
vote he should give on the momentous question, and in the 
pressure which he brought to bear upon him from the best 
and most influential of his constituents." ^ 

When Congress adjourned on the Fourth of July, 1864, 
General Ashley was thoroughly prepared to prosecute the cam- 
paign for the amendment during the recess and the early weeks 
of the next session, which would begin in December. Aided 
by the Hon. Henry Winter Davis of Maryland and Hon. 
Francis P. Blair, Jr., of Missouri, he prepared a list of nine- 
teen Border State men whose votes against the amendment 
in June were believed to have been in conflict with their per- 
sonal preferences. They were regarded as "men of broad 
and liberal views, and strong and self-reliant enough to follow 
their convictions even to political death, provided they could 
know that their votes would pass the measure." He also 
secured a very large list of the names of influential men re- 
siding in the districts represented by those nineteen men of 
the House, to aid in bringing pressure to bear upon them to 
secure their votes lor the amendment when it should again 
be brought before them. 

Upon consultation with Hon. Reuben E. Fenton, Governor 
of New York, and Hon. Augustus Frank, member of Con- 
gress from that state, he prepared a list of seventeen Northern 
democrats whose votes he hoped to secure for the amendment, 
and also a list of their most influential constituents to aid in 
efforts to induce them to support the amendment. From 
Toledo, Ohio, his home city, he prosecuted the campaign, 
aided by a limited niimber of trusted friends, until near the 
time for the convening of Congress. The work was con- 
ducted with great vigor but quietly and with no public an- 
nouncement of results attained. 

Until after the election in November public thought and 

3 Twenty Years of Congress, Vol. I., p. 536. 




HON. JAMES M. ASHLEY OF OHIO 

Who introduced into Congress the first bill to abolish slavery in the Dis- 
trict of Columbia, and the first Constitutional Amendment to abolish 
slavery in the United States. He had charge of both measures while 
they were before the House of Representatives. From a photograph 
by Brady, presented the author by General Ashley. 



CONSTITUTIONAL AMENDMENT 259 

effort were so largely occupied with the Presidential cam- 
paign and members of the House were so deeply concerned 
by their own political interests that this nation-wide campaign 
in support of the amendment proceeded without attracting 
any considerable attention. Hence, this feature of the battle 
for the abolition of slavery by Constitutional Amendment has 
no mention in the history of those times, because it was un- 
known to those who wrote that history. Before the adjourn- 
ment of Congress in July there was much to encourage the 
hope that the amendment would pass the House during the 
next session if the election in November indicated that it was 
approved by the people. Therefore, when President Lincoln 
was re-elected by a popular majority of 411,281 and an elec- 
toral majority of 191, with a new House of Representatives 
consisting of 138 Unionists and 35 democrats, the campaign 
in support of the amendment took on new life and was prose- 
cuted with greatly increased vigor and hope of success. 

The first thrilling achievement during this period was 
made known by a letter to General Ashley from Hon. George 
H. Yeaman, a democratic member of the House from Ken- 
tucky, and one of the ablest and most influential of the Border 
State delegation. On the nth of December, 1862, Judge 
Yeaman offered in the House resolutions declaring the Eman- 
cipation Proclamation "unwarranted by the Constitution and 
a useless and dangerous war measure." He had always been 
allied with the pro-slavery forces and opposed the Constitu- 
tional Amendment during the preceding session of Congress; 
but after the verdict of the people in November he at once 
wrote General Ashley informing him of his purpose to speak, 
vote and work for the passage of the amendment. Coming as 
it did before the reconvening of Congress and at a time when 
the opposing forces were advancing for the decisive struggle, 
that letter from the distinguished Kentucky democrat, filled 
with enthusiasm every one of the little group who were per- 
mitted to know its contents. Like similar letters received dur- 
ing those weeks it was held strictly confidential, and not until 



26o LATEST LIGHT ON ABRAHAM LINCOLN 

his very able speech in support of the amendment was deliv- 
ered in the House was the public informed of Judge Yeaman's 
alignment with those who favored that measure. 

The election in November made certain the passage of 
this, or an equally acceptable amendment, by the next Con- 
gress if the House failed at this time to approve of the pend- 
ing measure. This was both helpful and harmful to the 
campaign then in progress. It was helpful to know that it 
revealed the people's approval of the amendment and sounded 
the death-knell of slavery by constitutional provision, but that 
also caused some members whose votes were being sought to 
hesitate in taking action that would imperil their own political 
life when the measure was assured of ultimate success without 
their support. 

The certainty of success in the next Congress, if not in 
this, caused President Lincoln very earnestly to desire the 
passage of the amendment at this session. He was perfectly 
satisfied with the provisions and language of the impending 
measure, and believing that the Rebellion would soon be over- 
come, he was apprehensive that victory in the field would be 
so fully satisfying to the public and to the Government that 
less effective provisions respecting slavery might be adopted. 
This apprehension caused him to urge members of the House 
in personal interviews and otherwise to pass the amendments 
with least possible delay. In his annual message of December 
6th, 1864, he said: 

"At the last session of Congress a proposed amendment 
of the Constitution, abolishing slavery throughout the United 
States, passed the Senate, but failed for lack of the requisite 
two-thirds vote in the House of Representatives. Although 
the present is the same Congress, and nearly the same mem- 
bers, and without questioning the wisdom or patriotism of 
those who stood in opposition, I venture to recommend the 
reconsideration and passage of the measure at the present 
session. Of course the abstract question is not changed, but 
an intervening election shows, almost certainly, that the next 



CONSTITUTIONAL AMENDMENT 261 

Congress will pass the measure if this does not. Hence there 
is only a question of time as to when the proposed amendment 
will go to the States for their action. And as it is to so go, 
at all events, may we not agree that the sooner the better? 
It is not claimed that the election has imposed a duty on 
members to change their views or their votes any further 
than as an additional element to be considered, their judgment 
may be affected by it. It is the voice of the people now for 
the first time heard upon the question. In a great national 
crisis like ours, unanimity of action among those seeking a 
common end is very desirable — almost indispensable. And 
yet no approach to such unanimity is attainable unless some 
deference shall be paid to the will of the majority, simply 
because it is the will of the majority. In this case the com- 
mon end is the maintenance of the Union, and among the 
means to secure that end, such will, through the election, is 
most clearly declared in favor of such Constitutional Amend- 
ment." * 

During the reading of this portion of the President's 
message upon the face of each member of the House could 
be read his attitude toward the proposed amendment. Every 
one who was eager for its passage was like Moses, who, 
when he descended from the Mount, "wist not that the skin 
of his face shone." Those who had decided to change their 
vote and support the measure had an illumination of strength- 
ened purpose which they sought in vain to conceal. Those 
who were still undecided as to their course, but with a strong 
inclination in favor of the amendment, had deep agitation 
depicted on their faces; while those who were settled in their 
purpose to oppose the measure were of gloomy and ghastly 
visage. There was no sneering or expressions of anger, 
although all realized that the greatest and most important 
struggle in the history of Congress had come. 

As the Congress then In session would expire on the 4th 
of March it was decided to announce before the Holiday 
* Complete Works of Abraham Lincoln, Vol. X., pp. 303-304. 



262 LATEST LIGHT ON ABRAHAM LINCOLN 

recess when the motion to reconsider the vote on the amend- 
nient would be called up for consideration. Therefore, on 
the 15th of December, General Ashley stated in the House 
that on Friday, the 6th of January, 1865, he would ask to 
have his motion for reconsideration taken up for discussion. 
The announcement was expected and attracted the attention 
of every member present, many of whom instantly arose and 
with manifestation of great interest made inquiry respecting 
the matter. There was no Holiday recess for those who were 
engaged in efforts to secure votes for the amendment. In the 
seclusion of General Ashley's committee room in the Capitol 
confidential conferences were held with members of the House 
whose known view concerning the amendment and whose 
political status were such as to produce hope that they could 
be induced to support the measure, or to refrain from opposing 
or voting against it. President Lincoln kept in close touch 
with this work and gave it all possible and proper encourage- 
ment and assistance. He made frequent inquiries concerning 
the status of the movement and it was reported at the time 
that when he was informed that the measure was understood 
to lack only two votes of enough to pass it, he exclaimed 
with that subdued emphasis indicative of purposeful interest, 
"Only two votes? We must have those votes. Go and get 
them at once." But Mr. Lincoln was unyielding in his pur- 
pose not unduly to interfere with the prerogatives of Con- 
gress. 

Hon. George W. Julian of Indiana, who was active in the 
campaign for the amendment, says: "The success of the meas- 
ure had been considered very doubtful and depended upon cer- 
tain negotiations the result of which was not fully assured 
and the particulars of which never reached the public." ^ 

On the 29th of December, 1864, during the Holiday vaca- 
tion. Judge Yeaman, whose espousal of the amendment I have 
before mentioned, sent General Ashley a second letter so 
characteristic of the messages he was then receiving and so 
5 Political Recollections, p. 250. 



CONSTITUTIONAL AMENDMENT 263 

illustrative of the spirit by which democratic members who 
supported the amendment were dominated, that I reproduce 
it here in full, the original letter being now in my possession: 

"Private. Louisville, Dec. 29th, 1864. 

Dear Sir: 

You may have observed I was at work a good deal just 
before leaving Washington, so I will tell you what it was 
about if you will keep it awhile all to yourself. My battery 
is in position, my guns solid-shotted. I have the range and 
will fire just as soon as Mr. Speaker is kind enough to recog- 
nize "the gentleman from Ky." Of course, being, as I am, 
constitutionally and habitually a conservative man, I will 
have to rap you radicals a few good licks, especially your 
scheme of Reconstruction, but the speech zvill carry Ky. for 
the amendment, with great danger of cutting off my own 
head in my own district. But I will make the speech if it 
is the last I ever do make. I would like mine should be one 
of the first speeches in its favor and may not be back before 
the loth. So do not hurry matters. 

Yours, 

George H. Yeaman.'' 

Similar to this letter from Judge Yeaman were the con- 
fidential conversations of Northern democrats and Border 
State men who had voted against the amendment in June and 
had decided to give it their support at this time. 

The enlistment of Hon. Archibald McAllister of Pennsyl- 
vania in earnest support of the amendment added great impe- 
tus to the campaign. He was a man of heroic proportions 
and of distinguished appearance. He had not the gift of effec- 
tive public address, but was possessed of a great fund of 
practical wisdom and tremendous strength of personality. He 
was very active in the work of persuading other democratic 
members to support the amendment and the brief written 
statement of his reasons for changing his attitude to the meas- 



264 LATEST LIGHT ON ABRAHAM LINCOLN 

ure was read by the clerk of the House during the last hour 
of discussion and was one of the most dramatic features of 
that historic day. 

Several Northern democrats and Border State men con- 
tributed very largely to the strength of the campaign for 
votes by their masterly eloquence in support of the amend- 
ment. Other Border State men and Northern democrats who 
had opposed the measure in June were not less influential in 
favor of the amendment, although not so prominent in dis- 
cussions. 

Fortunately there was no corruption fund to be used in 
opposing the measure. The South was a financial wreck; 
the Rebellion was in its last stage, and partisan interests were 
the only influences left to give zest to the discussion or 
strength to their activities against the amendment. Many 
members who were aligned against the measure earnestly 
desired its passage, although lacking the courage openly to 
support it. Others who personally favored it were absent or 
silent when the vote was taken and the certainty of the early 
doom of slavery, with the expected early collapse of the Re- 
bellion, prevented filibustering as the last maneuver against a 
favorable vote. Another influence against filibustering tactics 
was the opposition's confidence in the defeat of the amend- 
ment which was unquestioning at the beginning of the ses- 
sion, the day the vote was taken and was not seriously dis- 
turbed until the final result was announced. 

There was tremendous force in the debate from the 6th 
of January, when the motion to reconsider was called up, 
until the final vote was taken on the 31st of that month. I 
was present on the floor of the House during all of that 
discussion and noted with profound interest the spirit that 
prevailed and the arguments presented on both sides, together 
with scenes of special interest and significance. 

A seriously disturbing rumor, put in circulation by the 
opponents of the amendment during the forenoon of the day 
the vote was taken, was effectively suppressed by the follow- 



CONSTITUTIONAL AMENDMENT 265 

ing correspondence between the President and the member 
having the amendment in charge:* 

"House of Representatives, January 31, 1865. 
Dear Sir: 

The report is in circulation in the House that Peace Com- 
missioners are on their way or in the city, and (it) is being 
used against us. If it is true, I fear we shall lose the bill. 
Please authorize me to contradict it, if it is not true. 

Respectfully, 

J. M. Ashley. 
To the President." 

Endorsement. 
"So far as I know there are no Peace Commissioners in 
the city or likely to be in it. 

January 31, 1865. A. Lincoln."^ 

It required great skill and energy to contradict the harmful 
rumor after the President's reply was received, but it was 
successfully accomplished without distracting attention from 
the great question before the House. The discussion during 
all the time the measure was before the House was conducted 
with commendable courtesy, and to guard against a possible 

* At the time this exchange of messages occurred Messrs. Stephens, 
Hunter and Campbell, Confederate Commissioners appointed by Jefferson 
Davis, were on their way north from Richmond, and apart from President 
Lincoln and Secretaries Seward and Stanton, no loyal person in Wash- 
ington knew of their coming. Somehow the Confederate sympathizers 
at Washington were informed of their appointment by Davis and their 
start for the north, and just as the forces in the House were closing 
in for a final struggle on the antislavery amendment, the rumor men- 
tioned by General Ashley in his letter to the President was put in circu- 
lation by persons who were opposed to the amendment. Those Con- 
federate Commissioners supposed they were coming to the Capital city 
and so did their friends at Washington, but they were stopped at Fortress 
Monroe, where President Lincoln met them on the 3rd of February 
for the famous Hampton Roads Conference, all of which shows how 
close the Confederate leaders kept in touch with their friends in the 
north. 

^ Complete Works of Abraham Lincoln, Vol. X., p. 349. 



266 LATEST LIGHT ON ABRAHAM LINCOLN 

filibustering movement, the last hour of the time for debate 
was occupied by members in brief explanation of their votes. 
This, though not pleasing to some radical friends of the 
amendment, who were impatient to have the vote taken, was 
wise parliamentary strategy and was effective in preventing 
all dilatory proceedings. As the debate was closed and the 
members settled down to the roll-call some of the strong advo- 
cates of the measure nervously and in subdued tones said: 
"It is the toss of a copper," but General Ashley, knowing more 
than he had disclosed concerning the purposes of some mem- 
bers, maintained that on the final vote the majority for the 
amendment would be from four to seven more than was 
required for its passage. 

The scene was one of imposing grandeur. All available 
space on the floor and in the galleries was occupied. Members 
of the Supreme Court and of the Senate, with many distin- 
guished people, were in attendance, and the diplomatic gallery 
was brilliant with the colors worn by representatives from 
foreign nations. 

The great chamber was filled with the atmosphere of 
intense purpose and all seemed to realize that the most 
momentous issue of the nation's history was about to be 
decided. 

There were two motions and two roll-calls before the 
motion to pass the amendment was reached. The first was 
a motion to lay on the table the motion to reconsider the vote 
of June 15th. The vote against this motion, while sufficient 
to defeat it, was two less than the necessary two-thirds re- 
quired to pass the amendment, and in the deep silence that 
prevailed Thaddeus Stevens and Elihu B. Washburne, two 
distinguished members of the House, were heard to say with 
solemnity, "General, we are defeated !" But in a ringing and 
inspiring voice that was heard in all the chamber and also 
in the galleries. General Ashley promptly replied: "No, gen- 
tlemen, we are not!" 

Then came the motion made by General Ashley to recon- 



CONSTITUTIONAL AMENDMENT 267 

sider the vote of June 15th when the amendment was de- 
feated and which was called up by him on the 6th of January. 
This was known to be more nearly a test vote than was the 
one to lay on the table, and many threw down their tally 
sheets and pencils, utterly discouraged, when it was seen that 
the vote to reconsider lacked one of the two-thirds. But 
the motion to reconsider required only a majority and was 
carried, bringing the House to the original motion which 
failed in June to submit to the states the constitutional amend- 
ment abolishing and forever prohibiting slavery. 

It now became difficult to proceed, as all realized that the 
knife was at the throat of slavery and that only one additional 
vote was required to accomplish its execution. There was a 
tear in the tone of the clerk as he proceeded with the final 
roll-call. Not a sound was heard as the vote was being taken 
save the voice of the clerk, and each member's aye or no as 
his name was called. The affirmative votes were given with 
far greater volume of voice than were those in the negative. 
Special emphasis was laid on the aye by some lifelong anti- 
slavery members, and a very few democrats responded with 
a no that had an undertone of bitterness. There was a sound 
of painful regret in some of the negative votes and in others 
there was a seeming apology and plea for pardon. Those 
members who for the first time then voted against slavery did 
so with that apparent delight which is experienced by those 
who escape from galling bondage. 

These are not mere gleanings from contemporary docu- 
ments. They are the impressions of an eye-witness whose soul 
was in his eyes as he witnessed those proceedings and made 
note of them for publication. But to proceed, the name of 
Governor English of Connecticut was reached early in the 
roll-call and his vote for the amendment, given with a strong, 
full voice, was greeted with hearty approval, as were the 
affirmative votes of other stalwart democrats. Especially 
enthusiastic were the greetings accorded the votes of those 
members whose purposes to support the amendment were not 



268 LATEST LIGHT ON ABRAHAM LINCOLN 

known to the public until their names were reached in the 
final roll-call on that day. 

When the member whose name was last on the roll had 
voted, the name of Speaker Colfax was called at his request, 
and his vote in the affirmative was greeted with generous ap- 
plause, after which he arose and said: "The constitutional 
majority of two-thirds having voted in the affirmative the 
Joint Resolution is passed." Pencils and tally sheets had been 
so largely laid aside during this last vote, and both the friends 
and opponents of the measure were so fully convinced that it 
would be defeated that quite a period of silence and of seem- 
ing bewilderment elapsed before the audience realized that the 
amendment had been passed. There was then a scene such 
as had never before occurred in the House, and such as has 
seldom been witnessed in any great legislative body. An 
account of the event which I wrote for publication on the 
31st of January, immediately after the vote was taken, is now 
before me, and is as follows: 

"The House has just passed the Constitutional Amend- 
ment forever prohibiting slavery in the United States by a 
vote of 119 yeas to 56 noes — an excess of seven over the 
requisite two-thirds majority. A tremendous burst of applause 
both upon the floor and in the galleries greeted the announce- 
ment of the result. The Speaker demanded order and rapped 
loudly upon his desk, but joy beamed in his eye and the 
delighted expression of his countenance added fuel to the 
flames of enthusiasm which he could not suppress. None 
appeared in such an ecstasy of delight as the boys in blue, 
who were in attendance in large numbers. The opponents 
of the measure, as if terrified by these joyous demonstrations, 
seemed to shrink from the scrutiny of the delighted heroes in 
army uniform as frost-bitten plants wilt in the genial sunshine 
of the king of day. 

"Of the three epochs in the history of our country, the 
landing of the Pilgrims, the signing of the Declaration of In- 
dependence, and the adoption of this antislavery amendment. 



CONSTITUTIONAL AMENDMENT 269 

the latter in its importance is not the least. The prominent 
actors in the two former scenes are held in affectionate re- 
membrance. Those of the latter are not less worthy. It is 
a source of just pride to every true American that not one 
of the immortals who signed the Declaration of Independence 
ever by word or deed dimmed the luster of the halo which 
encircles his name. May the future record of those who 
voted for this amendment be equally bright and lustrous." 

This newspaper report, hastily written more than half a 
century ago, in the excitement and confusion of that great 
civic triumph, is moderate in its reference to the demonstra- 
tions which were led by distinguished members of Congress, 
many of whom standing upon their desks, cheered and 
shouted with wild delight like college boys at a crisis in an 
athletic struggle. Cabinet ministers. Supreme Court Justices, 
and members of the senate joined heartily in the demonstra- 
tions of approval, in which many women of distinction fittingly 
participated. When that patriotic tumult in the House was 
at its height there was heard the boom of cannon proclaiming 
to the greater multitude the unspeakable achievement for the 
nation and for humanity. 

In the excitement that prevailed the able and skillful leader 
of this movement was not forgotten, but General Ashley 
could not be found to receive the ovation which members of 
the House and friends of the measure sought to bestow upon 
him, for immediately after the vote was taken he called a 
carriage and was the first to delight the heart of President 
Lincoln by announcing to him the great news and extending 
hearty congratulations upon the complete triumph of emanci- 
pation. 

It will prove both interesting and instructive carefully to 
analyze the vote by which this important provision was made 
a part of the National Constitution. At the final vote on the 
31st of January, 1865, when the amendment passed the House, 
every republican member of that body voted for it. Had 
every northern democratic member and every member from 



270 LATEST LIGHT ON ABRAHAM LINCOLN 

the Border States voted against it the measure would have 
been defeated by 65 votes. It was an omni-partisan victory. 
To the soHd repubUcan vote there was added the votes of 17 
northern democrats — 8 from New York, 5 from Ohio, 2 
from Pennsylvania, i from Connecticut, and i from Michigan. 
To these were added 19 votes by members from the Border 
States — 7 from Missouri, 4 from Kentucky, 4 from Maryland, 
3 from West Virginia, and i from Delaware. Four northern 
democrats who voted for the amendment on the 15th of June 
continued loyal to that record and were joined by 13 other 
northern democrats. 

As stated upon a preceding page, at the beginning of the 
campaign for votes there was prepared by General Ashley 
a list of the names of members whose votes for the amend- 
ment it was thought possible by earnest efforts to secure. Of 
the 36 members thus selected, 24 voted for the measure, 2 were 
absent, and only 10 voted against it. 

Judge Yeaman was not in error when in his letter of 
December 29th, hereinbefore set forth, he expressed his ap- 
prehension that his support of the amendment would cost 
him his political head in his district, for he never again held 
an elective office. And each one of the 24 northern democrats 
and Border State men who voted for the amendment was at 
that time the representative in Congress of a democratic dis- 
trict, as was the case with Judge Yeaman, and for that great- 
est act of his life he incurred the severe and permanent dis- 
pleasure of his constituents. Not one of their number escaped. 
Not one ever afterwards held an elective office, and their 
punishment, though severe and cruel, was not unexpected, 
for in all our efforts to secure their votes for the amendment, 
we frankly admitted that by supporting the measure they prob- 
ably would commit political suicide. 

Due credit should be given to tho:j who, by able, well- 
directed and persevering effort overcame such great difficulties 
and induced a sufficient number to make such sacrifices for a 
great cause, and undying honor should be given to those men 



CONSTITUTIONAL AMENDMENT 271 

who were willing thus to march to their political graves in 
the service of their country and of the cause of human 
freedom. 

And scarcely less honor is due the eight northern demo- 
crats who were absent when the vote was taken, of whom 
Mr. Blaine says, "It may be assumed that they assented to 
the amendment, but that they were not prepared to give it 
positive support." ^ 

If four of those eight absentees had been present and voted 
in the negative it would have prevented the passage of the 
amendment. And to prevail upon them thus to remain away 
and refrain from voting was one of the most delicate and 
difficult of all the tasks of that campaign. 

A striking and amusing contrast between an opponent 
and a supporter of the amendment was furnished by the 
declarations of two members of Congress while the measure 
was under consideration. When on the 8th of April, 1864, 
the senate passed the amendment. Senator Salisbury of Dela- 
ware, a zealous champion of slavery, arose and with great 
solemnity said: "I bid farewell to all hope for the restoration 
of the American Union." A few months after this ludicrous 
utterance Senator Salisbury saw the Union fully and perma- 
nently restored. 

While the measure was under consideration in the House, 
Hon. Isaac N. Arnold of Illinois, with very impressive earnest- 
ness said: "In view of the long catalogue of wrongs which 
it has inflicted upon the country, I demand today the death 
of American slavery." And Mr. Arnold saw and participated 
in the execution of slavery. 

On the evening of February ist — the day following the 
passage of the amendment — President Lincoln in response to 
a serenade of congratulation, for the first time after the Eman- 
cipation Proclamation was issued, spoke of that measure as 
insufficient for the destruction of slavery. He had always 
been unequivocal in the declaration of his belief in the va- 
^ Twenty Years of Congress, Vol. I., p. 538. 



272 LATEST LIGHT ON ABRAHAM LINCOLN 

lidity of that proclamation, and he never referred to its 
Hmitations until this Constitutional amendment was passed, 
when in that serenade speech he said: "He thought this 
measure was a very fitting if not an indispensable adjunct 
to the winding up of the great difficulty. He wished the re- 
union of all the states perfected, and so effected as to remove 
all causes of disturbance in the future; and, to attain this 
end, it was necessary that the original disturbing cause should, 
if possible, be rooted out. He thought all would bear him 
witness that he had never shrunk from doing all that he 
could to eradicate slavery, by issuing an Emancipation Procla- 
mation, But that proclamation falls short of what the amend- 
ment will be when fully consummated. A question might be 
raised whether the proclamation was legally valid. It might 
be urged that it only aided those that came into our lines, 
and that it was inoperative as to those who did not give them- 
selves up; or that it would have no effect upon the children 
of slaves born hereafter; in fact, it would be urged that it 
did not meet the evil. But this amendment is a king's cure-all 
for all evils." ' 

The ratification of the amendment by the several states 
was a proceeding of very great interest. Before the measure 
was for the second time brought before the House it had 
been taken up and thoroughly considered by the people 
throughout the country who, at the Presidential election in 
November, pronounced their verdict very emphatically in its 
favor. So intense had become the popular interest in the 
measure that immediately after it was passed by Congress 
there was lively competition among the states for priority 
of action in its ratification. Illinois — the President's home 
state — was the first to take such action. On the ist of Feb- 
ruary — the first day after the amendment passed the House 
and only a few hours after that event — the legislature of that 
state voted for its ratification. Other states followed in rapid 
succession. Rhode Island and Michigan on February 2nd; 
8 Complete Works of Abraham Lincoln, Vol. X., p. 353. 



CONSTITUTIONAL AMENDMENT 273 

Maryland, New York and West Virginia on the 3rd; Maine 
and Kansas on the 7th; Massachusetts and Pennsylvauia on 
the 8th; Virginia on the 9th; Ohio and Missouri on the loth; 
Indiana and Nevada on the i6th, and so on until before the 
end of that short month seventeen states had taken action 
ratifying the amendment. Before the end of the calendar 
year, on the i8th of December, Secretary Seward, who had 
remained in the Cabinet after President Lincoln's death, an- 
nounced by proclamation that twenty-seven states, being 
three-fourths of the thirty-six states in the nation, had offi- 
cially ratified the amendment which had thus been made a 
part of the National Constitution. 

It is interesting to note that four slave states — Virginia, 
Louisiana, Tennessee and Arkansas — reconstructed under 
President Lincoln's direction and by his authority, were among 
the twenty-seven states constituting the three-fourths neces- 
sary to accomplish that ratification. 

The Constitutional Amendment was as oil upon troubled 
waters in its influence upon the antislavery element of the 
nation. There were a few of the extreme radicals in Con- 
gress who seemed reluctant to forget that they had a chronic 
grudge against Mr. Lincoln because of his cautious and con- 
servative movements against slavery and his great kindness 
and forbearance toward those who were in rebellion, but, 
although their fault-finding inclinations remained with them, 
they found little of which to complain. There was, however, 
one exception of which they promptly availed themselves. 
While the loyal states were all jubilant over the passage of 
the amendment, and the President's charming response to 
the serenade of congratulations, without any warning the 
nation was startled on the morning of February 3rd by the 
telegraphic announcement that the President was at Fortress 
Monroe to confer with Confederate commissioners respecting 
terms of peace. This gave the trouble-makers their last op- 
portunity to pour the vials of wrath upon President Lincoln's 
devoted head. 



274 LATEST LIGHT ON ABRAHAM LINCOLN 

A better spirit was shown by tlie extreme abolitionists, 
who seemed anxious to forget that they ever were out of 
harmony with the President and earnestly desired to atone 
for their past disapproval of the policies by which he had led 
them, and the nation, to the great antislavery consummation. 

On the evening of the 4th of February, when the Presi- 
dent had just returned from the Hampton Roads conference, 
before mentioned, William Lloyd Garrison, the leader and the 
greatest of the radical abolition element, at a large mass meet- 
ing in Boston said : "And to whom is the country more imme- 
diately indebted for this vital and saving amendment of 
the Constitution than, perhaps, to any other man? I believe 
I may confidently answer — to the humble railsplitter of Il- 
linois — to the Presidential chain-breaker for millions of the 
oppressed — to Abraham Lincoln! (Immense and long-con- 
tinued applause, ending with three cheers for the President.) 
I understand that it was by his wish and influence that that 
plank was made a part of the Baltimore platform ; and taking 
his position unflinchingly upon that platform, the people have 
overwhelmingly sustained both him and it, in ushering in the 
year of jubilee." ^ 

It does not detract from the merit or value of the efforts 
and achievements of others in securing the passage of this 
Constitutional Amendment to state that it was Abraham Lin- 
coln who wrote that Article into the organic law of the nation. 
By his lifelong and consistent opposition to slavery, his clear, 
logical exposure of its injustice and wrong, his courageous 
demand for its restriction and "ultimate extinction," his wise 
and successful guidance of the movements that preceded and 
prepared the way for its downfall, his Proclamation of Eman- 
cipation and his early and hearty espousal of this Amendment, 
he is entitled to the designation by which he is known in all 
the world and by which he will evermore be remembered — 
The Emancipator ! 

9 The Liberator, February loth, 1865. 




MEMORIES 

This fascinating picture is from a painting by Harry Roseland, by whose 
courtesy and that of Gerlach-Barklow Co., it is here reproduced. 



PART II 



" Whatever is remembered or whatever lost, we 

ought never to forget that Abraham Lincoln, one of 

the mightiest masters of statecraft that history has 

ever known, was also one of the most devoted and 

faithful servants of Almighty God who has ever sat 

in the high places of the world." 

— Hon. John Hay. 




PRESIDENT LINCOLN DURING THE BATTLE OF GETTYSBURG 

Fiom a painting by Brisley for Dr. Ervin Chapman, and now in his collection. 

{See page 38 j) 



REMINISCENCES OF SECOND INAUGURATION 

THIS book had its inception at about one o'clock on the 
afternoon of Saturday, March 4th, 1865, during the 
six minutes of my absorbing attention to the dehvery 
of Abraham Lincoln's second inaugural address. That my 
attention was absorbing is evidenced by the fact that on the 
following day I was astonished to discover that I could repeat 
the address in its entirety with almost verbal accuracy, 
although I had neither seen it in print nor exchanged one word 
with any person concerning It. But during Its delivery it 
held me so transfixed and entranced that each one of Its 
seven hundred and two magic words was imprinted upon my 
mind as is a photographic picture upon a highly sensitized 
plate. Equally vivid was the picture of the entire scene that 
stood out before me, the central heroic figure standing erect, 
with scarce a movement save the handling of his manuscript, 
the one unstudied swaying of his massive head, and the shift- 
ing of his shoulders as he uttered with rhythmic emphasis and 
distinct enunciation, the sentence which is most widely known 
and most devoutly cherished of all his classic sayings — "With 
maHce toward none; with charity for all." 

To have heard these words spoken by Abraham Lincoln 
upon the occasion which gave them their peculiar meaning 
was to experience an ecstatic wonderment which with recur- 
rent movement ever since has filled my soul as they have been 
brought to recollection. Under the inspiration of that memo- 
rable Inauguration and the wonderful Inaugral address there 
took possession of my being a high purpose to give the world 
in abiding form, a record of the scenes I was witnessing, 



278 LATEST LIGHT ON ABRAHAM LINCOLN 

and an account of some of the distinctive features of the life 
which at that time reached the zenith of early glory. That 
purpose for more than half a century has held its place, and 
now finds fruition in this volume which I hope may contribute 
to a better understanding of one of the most interesting and 
instructive characters in modern history. 

The inauguration ceremonies were conducted upon a very 
large temporary platform constructed at the east front of 
the Capitol building, covering and extending far out beyond 
the broad marble stairs which lead up to the eastern entrance 
of the rotunda — the great circular room beneath the Capitol 
Dome. This platform was so inclined as to be fully exposed 
to view from every part of the east-front Capitol grounds, 
and was provided with seats for a large number of specially 
favored guests. The city was thronged with people from all 
parts of the country, each one intent upon witnessing the 
ceremonies to the best possible advantage. Being employed 
in the Capitol building I had excellent opportunities while 
the platform was being built to select the most desirable place 
for witnessing the inauguration ceremonies and hearing the 
inaugural address. My choice was made with deliberation 
and without difficulty, but to secure and hold the chosen posi- 
tion was not so easy. It was my first opportunity to attend 
a Presidential inauguration and I was determined to make 
the most of it. Therefore, in the drenching rain of that 
cold March morning, a few minutes before seven o'clock, I 
took my station about twenty feet from the platform and 
directly in front of where I knew the President would stand 
while delivering his address and receiving the oath of office. 
For more than an hour I was the only occupant of the space 
upon which before noon, according to estimates at the time, 
fifty thousand men and women were shivering in the drenching 
rain, and either crowding to gain better positions or stub- 
bornly holding those they had secured. 

The scene was so inspiring and my anticipations were so 
vivid that I did not experience the least discomfort during 



REMINISCENCES OF SECOND INAUGURATION 279 

the five hours of exposure to the cold precipitation which 
continued until twelve o'clock, and was followed by an hour 
of constant indications of further rain. 

At noon, however, the storm ceased, and within thirty- 
minutes the seats provided on the platform for invited guests 
were all occupied save those of the front section, which were 
reserved for the Presidential party and for invited guests 
who were attending the closing sessions of the two Houses 
of Congress, and witnessing the opening of the special ses- 
sion of the Senate called by the President. I was standing 
where I could see each one who came upon the platform, and 
I recognized among the number many of the nation's most 
distinguished citizens. While the multitude was gathering 
upon the platform and on the grounds, many famous bands 
contributed patriotic music, but the rain prevented the free 
and effective use of the fife and drum, at that time so essential 
to the fitting inspiration of such an assembly; and the sense 
of that lack lingered in the memory as an undefined yet real 
defect. 

At twelve o'clock noon on that 4th of March, the thirty- 
eighth Congress of the United States ceased to exist and the 
strife and struggle of its closing activities were in tumultuous 
progress while the crowds were gathering outside to witness 
the inauguration. In the President's room near the senate 
chamber Mr. Lincoln was signing bills which had passed the 
two Houses of Congress and, immediately following the ad- 
journment of Congress, the special session of the senate con- 
vened, and Andrew Johnson was inaugurated as Vice- 
President of the United States and President of the Senate. 
President Lincoln was in attendance upon these ceremonies 
and accompanied by the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court 
immediately thereafter led the procession which passing out 
of the south door of the senate chamber proceeded through 
the long corridor to the great rotunda, and then turned east 
to the wide doorway opening out upon the inauguration 
platform. 



28o LATEST LIGHT ON ABRAHAM LINCOLN 

It was nearly one o'clock when, from where I stood, there 
was seen a peculiar movement among the guards standing 
just outside those wide doors and between the magnificent 
Corinthian pillars of the Capitol. This indicated that the 
Presidential party was approaching, and in an instant the 
tumult was hushed to profound silence, and one could feel 
the waves of patriotic enthusiasm and devotion that swept 
over that immense assembly. 

All eyes were turned to where the stalwart figures of the 
President and Chief Justice Chase were seen emerging through 
the wide door of the rotunda and advancing out upon the 
upper landing of the broad marble stairway and down the 
steps to the seats assigned them at the front and center of 
the great temporary platform. They were followed by the 
Justices of the United States Supreme Court, clothed in their 
long black official robes; members of the Cabinet and of 
both Houses of Congress; members of the diplomatic corps, 
each in the court costume of his country, and a large number 
of army and navy officers in brilliant uniform, together with 
many distinguished persons from all parts of the land. 

The new Vice-President, Andrew Johnson, with Senator 
James R. Doolittle of Wisconsin, who accompanied him, were 
in the procession and were assigned seats at the front of the 
platform on the right of the President and the Chief Justice. 

During all the morning and up to the time the Presidential 
party appeared there had not been a ray of sunshine, but 
just as President Lincoln stepped from beneath the shelter 
of the Capitol building, in front of the great eastern colon- 
nade and out upon the platform, there was suddenly a wide 
opening in the thick black clouds above us, and the bright, 
glorious sunshine illuminated all the scene with ineffable 
splendor and beauty. The melancholy features of the Presi- 
dent instantly became radiant with the joy we have since 
learned was awakened in his heart by the good omen from 
above; and the great waiting throng inspired by his coming 
and gladdened by that omen, greeted the sunburst with re- 




CHIEF JUSTICE SALMON PORTLAND CHASE 

who, on the 4th of March, 1865, administered the oath of ofhce to President 

Abraham Lincohi. 



REMINISCENCES OF SECOND INAUGURATION 281 

ligious and patriotic fervor and enthusiasm. On the next 
day in greeting an esteemed caller, the President said: "Was 
not that burst of sunshine glorious? It made my heart jump." 

The entrance of that large company of distinguished 
people and their distribution on the platform was a thrillingly 
imposing pageant. If they had gathered from different points 
and at intervals as the multitude had assembled upon the cam- 
pus the spectacle would have been less graphic. But they all 
came pouring out at the same point and advanced with steady 
movement down to their respective stations. It seemed that 
the great rotunda from which they came was an arena in 
which the stalwart champions of human interests had been 
engaged in furious and successful combat with their enemies 
and from which they were marching out to receive the plaudits 
of the people. 

In the personnel of its participants that pageant was never 
equalled in our nation's history. At other times there have 
been greater numbers in the procession, but on no other occa- 
sion has there been such a moving company of men and 
women of such high and heroic mold. The long struggles 
against slavery and the four years of war had engaged the 
efforts of people of the highest type who, by their warfare 
on behalf of freedom and human rights, had been developed 
to heroic measurements. No other administration and no 
Congress in our history contained so large a percentage of 
members of extraordinary character and talent as the nation 
had at that time. And they looked the part, never appearing 
to better advantage than when moving in that picturesque 
procession or massed upon that platform. 

It was peculiarly fitting that that advancing column should 
be headed by the two men most fully typical of the two 
classes of high-grade American citizenship. The Chief Jus- 
tice was at that time without a peer as a type of the best 
results of careful and wise breeding and thorough educational 
development and training. Descended from long lines of able 
and distinguished ancestors he was early recognized as worthv 



282 LATEST LIGHT ON ABRAHAM LINCOLN 

of his lineage and was put in training for high distinction. 
In personal appearance and bearing he was majestic, tall, 
well formed, with massive head, and features indicative of 
great intellectual endowments and force of character. He 
was a finished product of the best New England stock and 
was generally regarded as unexcelled in the qualities thus 
produced. 

But he was outclassed by the man who marched beside 
him in that inaugural procession. Chase was great, Lincoln 
was peerless. Chase was erect and dignified ; Lincoln towered 
above him, too great for any touch of self-conscious man- 
nerism. The features of Chase were like carved and polished 
marble; those of Lincoln were like deeply chiselled granite, 
roughened by the storm and tempest. Chase marched with 
precise and measured tread. Lincoln stepped along the way 
like a trained athlete whose well developed and supple muscles 
are Hke those of the graceful monarch of the jungle. In the 
appearance and movements of Chase his high class and cul- 
tured ancestry reappeared ; Lincoln's giant frame and mag- 
netic personality were the embodiment of an elect company 
of forebears developed, cultured and trained in the struggles 
of early frontier life, and in the spell which his presence 
cast upon all who saw him were revealed potentialities which 
were more than human. There were counterparts of Chase 
in some of the distinguished men upon the platform, and 
here and there were men who resembled Lincoln, 

"Men of mould, 
Well embodied, well ensouled," 

as Emerson aptly says. 

From the moment he appeared leading that procession, 
my whole being was engaged in the study of Abraham Lin- 
coln. After he was seated, and while the members of the 
Presidential party were being assigned their stations, my 
opportunities to study the great leader were better than I 
had before enjoyed. He was sitting only a few feet from 



REMINISCENCES OF SECOND INAUGURATION 283 

the place where I was standing with his face turned in that 
direction, his uncovered head and rugged features iUuminated 
by the bright and benignant sunshine. He appeared perfectly 
at ease, giving no heed to what was before or around him, 
and without the least indication of nervous tension or agita- 
tion. His head was not wholly erect as during the years of 
his titanic struggles in Illinois, but was slightly bowed as in 
meditation, and his massive shoulders were bent as with a 
great burden, giving the appearance of great strength and 
power of endurance. His eyes had a far-away, dreamy look, 
and there was not the slightest movement of the hand, head 
or features from the time he took his seat until he arose to 
speak. The great multitude was in a tumult of enthusiasm, 
but he seemed unconscious of their display of admiration 
and loyalty, being intent on matters of great magnitude and 
moment. During the six years immediately preceding that 
inauguration I had given much attention to the study of 
Abraham Lincoln. I had seen him upon other important 
occasions and had been with him until I thought I had formed 
an approximately accurate estimate of his dimensions, but 
never until I stood before him on that memorable 4th of 
March did I realize the immense power of his personality 
and his measureless reserve force. 

His silence was eloquent ; his meditation audible ; his tran- 
quillity dynamic; his repose instinct with action, and his 
solemn melancholy sparkled with humor and good cheer. 
From his tremendous personality there flowed currents of 
mystic power that were resistless in their influence upon the 
convictions and purposes of those about him. My sensitive 
nature responded to those waves of magnetic force while 
in rapturous bewilderment I sought to discover the secret 
of his greatness, and I was unconsciously lifted to a higher 
level of purpose by a silent influence which I felt but could 
not understand. Never after those moments of apocalyptic 
vision was I the same as I had been before. The time was 
too brief for further reflections, for soon all were seated. 



284 LATEST LIGHT ON ABRAHAM LINCOLN 

and without a signal or word of introduction Mr. Lincoln 
arose and advanced close to the railing, as near as possible 
to the great throng before him, with his right hand touching 
the table by his side and his left hand holding his manuscript. 
Thus he stood in silence while cheers and shouts seemed to 
rend the heavens with their volume and intensity. I had 
been in vast and enthusiastic gatherings before that day, but 
never had I heard anything so suggestive of the expression, 
"a sound like the voice of many waters," as were the salvos 
of applause that greeted President Lincoln as he stood before 
that throng. 

There were thousands in that cheering crowd whose chief 
desire was not so much to witness the inaugural pageantry 
as to see and hear the President, and to express their patriotic 
loyalty by their presence and their enthusiastic demonstra- 
tions. They could see their hero who stood in plain view of 
each one, with his great wealth of coal black hair and long 
black coat forming a becoming framework for his strong, 
swarthy face, but many of them were late in coming, and 
unfortunately were compelled to take positions so far from 
the platform that they had no expectation of being able to 
hear a word of the inaugural address. Therefore, the con- 
tinuance of the deafening applause was not as objectionable 
to them as it was to those of us who had secured positions 
near the platform. 

There was no signal for silence from the President, no 
lifting of the hand or other movement, but an invisible influ- 
ence from the silent and fixed figure before them soon hushed 
the multitude to a profound silence which became oppressive 
while the President delayed the beginning of his address. 
Then the first two words he uttered flew like a flaming dart 
out over the astonished people. What he said was startling 
because it was unique and utterly unexpected. Those first 
two words thrilled me through and through like recurrent 
waves of electricity, and upon others also, as I have learned, 
their influence was the same. In his first inaugural address, 



REMINISCENCES OF SECOND INAUGURATION 285 

Mr. Lincoln began with the customary words, "Fellow Citi- 
zens" ; but the long and bloody struggle of the war had caused 
the people to become more to the great-hearted chieftain 
than is signified by those almost hackneyed words, therefore, 
in this the greatest of all his state papers and addresses, by 
divine inspiration, as I believe, Mr. Lincoln revealed the 
strength and tenderness of his affection for the people by 
saying, "Fellow Countrymen!" 

But far more thrilling than the words themselves was the 
remarkable manner in which they were spoken. Abraham 
Lincoln was probably the only man then in public life who 
would have uttered those words in such a fashion. Any 
other man in all probability would have begun his address 
in tones heard by only a limited number of that great com- 
pany, and would have increased the volume of his voice as 
he proceeded; and it is not likely that more than one-third 
of that large number of eager listeners would have been able 
distinctly to hear one word of his address. Mr. Lincoln 
was not like the minister who, when asked how he prepared 
his sermons, replied, "1 regard my sermons as a work of 
art, and I prepare and deliver them accordingly"; but was 
rather like another minister, who answered the same question 
by saying: "I regard my sermons as I do my fishing tackle, 
and I think only of the fish I hope to catch." 

Always ardently in love with the people, Mr. Lincoln 
earnestly endeavored to have every word of his address heard 
by all who were present. Flis long experience upon the stump 
had taught him that the man whom it was most important 
for him to reach and influence — the man not fully in sympathy 
with him — was the one sitting or standing farthest back in 
the audience. He had also learned that the words distinctly 
heard and understood by that man would certainly be heard 
by all others in the audience. Other public speakers also 
knew this, but Mr. Lincoln acted upon it; therefore, in de- 
livering his inaugural address, after a very impressive pause, 
he thrilled and delighted every one by uttering those two 



286 LATEST LIGHT ON ABRAHAM LINCOLN 

introductory words in a voice so strong and clear as to be 
distinctly heard by those who were most distant from him. 
Instantly, hundreds of voices from all parts of the most dis- 
tant sections of that enormous throng responded by shout- 
ing, "Good, good!" in tones expressive of their surprise and 
joy at being able to hear those words so plainly. "Good," 
indeed it was! No other word could so well express their 
joy, and that monosyllable was quite sufficient. It told the 
story of their delight at being rewarded for their long and 
expensive journeys to Washington by being able to hear the 
inaugural address as delivered by the man whom they held in 
highest admiration and affection. 

The President seemed equally surprised by the prompt 
and hearty response to his salutation, as the people had been 
by his words and manner, and he stood in silence for a 
moment before continuing his address. Then upon the same 
high key, with voice as clear as the tones of a silver trumpet, 
he proceeded deliberately to declare his great message to 
mankind. There was not the least display of special effort 
to be heard, though not a word of that address failed to reach 
every one of that listening assembly. I was then a young man 
with high ambition to become, if possible, an effective public 
speaker. For that I had by the aid of books and schools 
made careful and thorough preparation and I had heard the 
master orators of the day. But my best instruction in the 
art of public discourse was received during the six minutes 
occupied by the delivery of Abraham Lincoln's second inau- 
gural address. There was no effort at oratorical display, 
no endeavor to be impressive, not the slightest mannerism of 
any kind whatsoever. Mr. Lincoln seemed to have no thought 
of his address as "a work of art," or other than a message 
of Jehovah to His chastened and suffering people to whom 
He was about to give redemption and deliverance. His whole 
manner was calculated to elicit and hold that rapt attention 
with which the people listened to his message. And he seemed 
to desire and expect just what his hearers so plentifully gave. 



REMINISCENCES OF SECOND INAUGURATION 287 

Only once was he interrupted by applause, and that came 
most unexpectedly at the close of a peculiarly significant state- 
ment and gave solemn emphasis to the next very brief 
sentence. 

Speaking of conditions in the nation four years before 
he said: "Both parties deprecated war ; but one of them would 
make war rather than let the nation survive; and the other 
would accept war rather than let it perish." So tense had 
the feelings of the audience become that at the close of that 
sentence a storm of applause burst forth from all the throng 
and continued for a considerable time with very great force. 
The President, though seemingly surprised, was undisturbed 
by the interruption, and when the applause ceased he very 
deliberately and with most impressive solemnity uttered the 
four words of the next sentence, "And the war came." There 
were tears in the tone in which those words were spoken 
which touched the hearts of those who heard him, and pre- 
pared them to listen in silence to the succeeding portions of 
the address. 

A little later in the address the people were moved as 
standing grain at harvest time is swayed by the evening 
breeze, but there was no demonstration, for the impression 
was too deep and too peculiar to be fittingly expressed. My 
own experiences were probably like those of others, and when 
he said, "It may seem strange that any men should dare to 
ask a just God's assistance in wringing their bread from the 
sweat of other men's faces," my hands involuntarily were 
clinched in righteous indignation, which instantly vanished 
when he added, "But let us judge not that we be not judged." 
Considered in connection with Mr. Lincoln's conception of 
the character of slavery, together with his life struggles and 
hardships which preceded that day, and the awful experiences 
and desolation of four years of war, which was even then in 
progress, the spirit manifested by the quotation of the 
Saviour's words was never surpassed by any save the incar- 
nate Son of God. 



288 LATEST LIGHT ON ABRAHAM LINCOLN 

Never did I listen to a discourse which at the time it was 
being deHvered seemed more impressively religious than did 
that inaugural address. It seemed like a vety instructive 
and helpful sermon on law and gospel, greatly enriched and 
strengthened by appropriate passages of Scripture, clearly and 
correctly interpreted and most fittingly applied. It caused 
all the subsequent inauguration ceremonies to be pervaded 
by a religious atmosphere and gave great significance to the 
use of the Bible in administering the oath of ofhce. Four 
times did Mr. Lincoln quote from the Scriptures while de- 
livering that address, twice from the Old Testament — from 
Genesis and the Psalms — and twice from the words of Jesus 
as recorded by Matthew. Of the seven hundred and two 
words in that address, two hundred and sixty-six — more than 
one-third — were quoted verbatim from the Word of God, or 
were employed in expounding and applying the quoted pas- 
sages. And never were passages of Scripture more aptly 
quoted nor more fittingly applied. I had for years been a 
diligent Bible student, but never until that day did I realize the 
tremendous meaning of the Saviour's words: "Woe unto the 
world because of offenses! for it must needs be that offenses 
come ; but woe to that man by whom the offense cometh." 
Mr. Lincoln's interpretation of that passage as teaching the 
great law of divine retribution made a most profound and 
salutary impression upon those who heard it, and ever since 
it has grown in significance and force. It was a truth upon 
which he had pondered long and earnestly. A declaration 
of that truth was the most striking feature of his interview 
with Dr. Newton Bateman in i860, and was repeated in 
various forms many times during succeeding years. Eleven 
months before his second inauguration Mr. Lincoln stated 
that truth in his Hodges-Bramlette letter, in language almost 
identical with that employed in the inaugural address. In 
his letter to Thurlow Weed, written eleven days after the 
inauguration, he indicated that he regarded his declaration 
of the law of retribution as taught in the words of Jesus 



REMINISCENCES OF SECOND INAUGURATION 289 

as the distinguishing feature of his address. And while he 
beheved that his reference to that divine law caused his in- 
augural address to be as he said, "not immediately popular," 
at the same time he confidently added: "It is a truth which 
I thought needed to be told, and as whatever of humiliation 
there is in it falls most directly on myself, I thought others 
might afford for me to tell it." So important did Mr, Lin- 
coln regard the enunciation of that truth upon that occasion 
that he referred to it a second time as follows: "Fondly 
do we hope — fervently do we pray— ]that this mighty scourge 
of war may speedily pass away. Yet, if God wills that it 
continue until all the wealth piled by the bondman's two hun- 
dred and fifty years of unrequited toil shall be sunk, and 
until every drop of blood drawn by the lash shall be paid 
by another drawn with the sword, as was said three thousand 
years ago, so still it must be said, 'The judlgihents of the 
Lord are true and righteous altogether.' " "^ 

I was more deeply impressed by that passage than by 
any other portion of the address, and the same was evidently 
the case with many others. I was thrilled by its poetic 
beauty, and melted by its humble and submissive spirit, I 
still doubt if there can be found in literature a passage that 
surpasses it in startling and graphic imagery and in dynamic 
force. At one and the same time it reveals the yearning 
heart of hope, the uplifted eye of prayer, the listening ear 
of conscious guilt, the voice of righteous divine judgment and 
the bowed head of penitence. Its language is chaste, and 
moves gracefully along the high level of the inspired Word 
which it quotes as its climax with faultless fitness. 

It is now more than half a century since I heard that 
inaugural address, and from that day to the present, when 
I hear or read the 19th Psalm, I have a vivid recollection of 
seeing the form of Abraham Lincoln standing in the illu- 
minating light of that sunny afternoon and hearing him say, 
"The judgments of the Lord are true and righteous alto- 
gether." Early in life I memorized that Psalm and for many 



290 LATEST LIGHT ON ABRAHAM LINCOLN 

years, upon the flying train, in the busthng throng, when 
overworked, weary and wakeful at night, or when the ten- 
sion of pain, sorrow, or anxiety seemed to require relaxation, 
I have repeated that peculiarly precious portion of God's 
Word, but I never reach that passage without pausing and 
lingering in remembrance upon the time when I heard those 
words spoken by Abraham Lincoln. 

As the last word of the address was spoken the audience 
responded with very hearty applause, and the President 
calmly turned to the Chief Justice, who promptly arose, 
and advancing received from the Clerk of the Supreme Court 
a copy of the Bible which had been provided for the occa- 
sion. The applause instantly ceased and there was deep and 
impressive silence in all the company during that solemn 
ceremony. The Chief Justice, holding the Bible in his left 
hand, raised his right hand, and the President with his right 
hand lifted in like manner placed his left hand reverently 
upon the open Volume, and the two great men stood face 
to face each looking steadily into the other's eye, while the 
President repeated the oath of office, sentence by sentence, 
after the words were spoken by the Chief Justice. 

The scene was impressive beyond all possible 'description. 
The background of the picture was significant, the great 
audience of distinguished guests on the inclined platform 
extended back to the colonnade of the magnificent white 
Capitol building, with the Goddess of Liberty standing upon 
the summit of the high dome and then for the first time 
looking down upon a Presidential inauguration ; with all eyes 
turned upon the two strong figures standing motionless at 
the front of the platform, the whole scene bathed in glorious 
sunshine, and the deep and solemn silence broken only by 
the voices of the two men as they responsively repeated the 
oath of office required by the Constitution of the nation. Mr. 
Lincoln's voice was in marked contrast with that of the Chief 
Justice; the latter, although speaking in tones of wonderful 
depth and volume, was heard by only a limited number, while 




BIBLE ON WHICH LINCOLN TOOK OaTH OF OFFICE 



REMINISCENCES OF SECOND INAUGURATION 291 

the former repeating after him in clear and ringing tones the 
sentences of the oath sent his voice far out to the most dis- 
tant hsteners. 

When with special emphasis he had uttered the conclud- 
ing words — "So help me God" — Mr. Lincoln reverently 
bowed his head, and fervently kissed the Bible; and as he 
did so his lips touched the 27th and 28th verses of the fifth 
chapter of Isaiah, which read as follows: "None shall be 
weary nor stumble among them ; none shall slumber nor sleep ; 
neither shall the girdle of their loins be loosed, nor the latchet 
of their shoes be broken: Whose arrows are sharp, and all 
their bows bent, their horses' hoofs shall be counted like flint, 
and their wheels like a whirlwind." 

The copy of the Bible containing those verses, marked by 
the Chief Justice, was on the following day given by him 
to Mrs. Lincoln; but the most diligent search, extending over 
a period of many years, has failed to find it. As Mr. Lincoln 
uttered the last word of his official oath the booming of can- 
non announced to the world that the exercises of the day 
had been brought to a successful close, and that the new 
administration had been ushered in. 

At that point there occurred an event which I believe 
has never been mentioned in any published account of this 
inauguration. Many histories of those times make mention 
of Andrew Johnson's intoxication at the time he received in the 
senate chamber the oath of office as Vice-President, just before 
the Presidential inauguration; but they contain no account 
of his connection with an episode which followed the tak- 
ing of the oath of of^ce by President Lincoln. I can under- 
stand this omission only by supposing that those who have 
given accounts of these inaugural proceedings if present at the 
time were sitting upon the platform with the invited guests 
and did not witness the incident. But, as already stated, 
I was standing directly in front of the platform, only a few 
feet from where the ceremonies were being conducted, and 
I saw all that I am here stating. Just as President Lincoln 



292 LATEST LIGHT ON ABRAHAM LINCOLN 

turned from kissing the Bible there arose from the audience 
before him an almost terrific call for Andrew Johnson, 
"Andy, Andy, speech, speech!" was the cry of the multitude, 
and Mr. Lincoln, who, a little time before, had seen the dis- 
graceful proceedings in the senate, advanced to the platform 
railing with nervous haste, and with dramatic earnestness 
shook his head commandingly to the tempestuous throng. 
But there was little abatement of the call for Johnson, whose 
torrid temperament and violent denunciation of treason and 
rebellion had made him a popular idol, and when President 
Lincoln, after shaking his head, waved a salutation to the 
audience and turned to depart, the call for the new Vice- 
President was renewed with increased volume and violence. 

For a time Mr, Johnson gave no heed to this call, but 
he finally arose and came forward with the evident purpose 
of speaking. In manifest bewilderment he stood for a 
moment in silence, and then covering his eyes with his right 
hand stood motionless as if trying to collect his thoughts. 
His face was flushed and seemed slightly swollen, and many 
voices in the audience were heard saying, "He is sick! He 
is sick! He cannot speak!" And before he could gain com- 
mand of his great resources his devoted friend, Senator Doo- 
little, hastily advanced, and taking his arm conducted him 
into the retiring procession, up the steps into the rotunda. 
I had not a thought, and heard no intimation, that the affair 
had any undesirable significance. I knew that it was not a 
time for any proceedings not connected with the inaugural 
ceremonies, and I supposed that what President Lincoln did 
in disapproving of the call for Johnson was on that account. 
I heard no reference to the matter at the time, and as I left 
Washington that evening for a visit to my Ohio home, it was 
several days before I learned of ]\lr. Johnson's unfortunate 
condition upon that occasion. 

Andrew Johnson, though addicted to the habitual use of 
intoxicating liquors, was not a drunkard, as his condition 
that day seemed to indicate. He was often very considerably 





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REMINISCENCES OF SECOND INAUGURATION 293 

under the influence of liquor, but I never learned of his being 
at any other time as nearly maudlin drunk as upon that occa- 
sion. For 5ome weeks preceding that day Mr. Johnson had 
been ill with ague at his home in Tennessee and was weak 
and nervous when he arrived at the Vice-President's room 
in the Capitol building for his induction into office. Stating 
his condition to the retiring Vice-President, Hannibal Ham- 
lin, he asked for a glass of brandy, which Mr. Hamlin by 
sending out secured. According to Mr. Hamlin's statement, 
Mr. Johnson drank about one-third of the brandy at once, 
and a little later a like amount, and finally took the remainder 
in the glass as they passed out of the room to the senate 
chamber, A considerable amount of time was occupied by 
the proceedings in the senate before the oath of office was 
administered to the newly elected Vice-President, and when 
Mr. Johnson arose to speak he was thoroughly befuddled; 
and instead of giving the able and dignified address he was 
rightfully expected to deliver he compelled that large as- 
sembly of the world's able and distinguished representatives 
to listen for an extended period to his senseless and inco- 
herent gibberish. It was an unspeakably pitiful and humiliat- 
ing spectacle. Mr. Johnson had risen from ignorance, 
poverty and obscurity by his own heroic and persistent efforts 
until he had attained nation-wide distinction, and had been 
chosen by his loyal countrymen to the second office in the 
nation. He had stood heroically for right and honor and 
had courageously denounced treason and rebellion with un- 
sparing severity and effectiveness. And on that fateful 4th 
of March he stood triumphant at the zenith of his highest 
known aspirations, enshrined in the affections of the nation 
and with every prospect of a distinguished future career. 
But from that eminence he fell ; fell ignobly, fell by his own 
folly never again to rise to the heights of esteem and honor 
upon which he stood when he walked into that senate chamber 
which for years had been the arena of his contests with the 
forces of disloyalty. He fell just as he had reached the high 



294 LATEST LIGHT ON ABRAHAM LINCOLN 

station from which he was destined very soon to pass into 
the most exalted position of authority in the world, as suc- 
cessor to Abraham Lincoln in the office of chief magistrate 
of the United States. And in falling he lost the popular 
esteem and confidence which would have been of priceless 
value in aiding him successfully to meet the requirements of 
that position. He fell because he voluntarily invited that 
disaster. 

A little boy when told that he had fallen out of bed 
because he had lain too near where he got in, promptly 
replied, "No, I fell out of bed because I laid too near where 
I fell out." Andrew Johnson fell because he walked too near 
the precipice over which he made that headlong plunge. He 
was not drunk because he was a habitual drunkard, for that 
he was not; but because he was a habitual "moderate drinker." 
Had he been a total abstainer, as was Abraham Lincoln, and 
as was his noble and worthy predecessor, Hannibal Hamlin, 
the nation would not have been humiliated in the eyes of the 
world as it never had been before by the unseemly and ill- 
timed exhibition of ignoble weakness on the part of one of 
its most distinguished representatives. 

So exasperated was President Lincoln by the incident 
that as he was passing out of the senate chamber he said to 
those in charge of the inaugural proceedings: "Do not permit 
Johnson to speak a word during the exercises that are now 
to follow." 

One feature of that inauguration which afforded Mr. Lin- 
coln special delight was the large attendance of colored 
people, and the presence of a company of colored soldiers as 
a military guard. Nothing of the kind had ever before oc- 
curred, and it was at that time especially suitable because 
it was not only, as already stated, the first Presidential inau- 
guration beneath the great bronze statue of the Goddess of 
Liberty, but it was also the first Presidential inauguration of 
the nation free from slavery. 

During the afternoon of that day I saw groups of people 



REMINISCENCES OF SECOND INAUGURATION 295 

at several widely separated points in the city all gazing toward 
the heavens, and at length I, too, paused and looked, and to 
my unspeakable surprise I saw a bright and beautiful star 
shining with undimmed splendor in close proximity to the 
unclouded king of day. It was about three o'clock, and the 
star was at the point which the sun had seemed to occupy 
about one hour before. I have never heard of any scientific 
explanation of this strange phenomenon, but I could not re- 
frain from regarding it, as did many others who saw it, as 
an omen of good. It has been stated that President Lincoln 
and his attendants saw the star as they were returning from 
the Capitol to the White House, and that it gave the President 
great delight, as did the welcome sunburst at the inaugura- 
tion. If not an omen from above that star was a beautiful 
and gladsome symbol of the star of hope which on that good 
day shone with celestial splendor in the hearts of the loyal 
people of the nation. 

Mr. Lincoln's second inaugural address was prepared by 
him with painstaking care, and has come to be regarded not 
only as his literary masterpiece, but as a state paper unex- 
celled in all human history. From that noonday hour of 
rifting clouds and dazzling sunshine, on through the starlit 
afternoon that followed, and down to the present time, that 
address has steadily advanced in public favor, and in critical 
appreciation. No one ever has suggested for that address 
the addition or subtraction of a single word. It seems to be 
a faultless composite with each of its component parts fully 
disclosed; and no one is able to show that any one part is 
dominant. Its rhetoric is perfect ; its history is full and com- 
plete; its statecraft is profound and far-seeing, and in every 
part it is illuminated by fitly chosen gems of sacred truth. 
With exalted majesty it proclaims the sovereignty of God 
and His inexorable law of righteous retribution, and with 
pathetic penitence bears witness that His judgments "are true 
and righteous altogether." In the submissive spirit of Geth- 
semane it holds up the rod of intercession and dazzles hu- 



296 LATEST LIGHT ON ABRAHAM LINCOLN 

manity with its reflection of the celestial glory of the Cross 
by its "malice toward none" and its "charity for all." If 
not as pleasing as the Gettysburg address it is far greater 
and more lastingly impressive and potential. It is more than 
a masterpiece; it is an unclassed state paper and a literary 
solitaire. Dr. J. G. Holland declares that the address is 
"a paper whose Christian sentiments and whose reverent and 
pious spirit has no parallel among the state papers of the 
American Presidents." 

Hon. Isaac N. Arnold referring to it says: "Since the days 
of Christ's Sermon on the Mount, where is the speech of 
emperor, king or ruler which can compare with this? May 
we not without irreverence say that passages of this address 
are worthy of that Holy Book which daily he read and from 
which during his long days of toil he had drawn inspiration 
and guidance? Where else but from the teachings of the 
Son of God could he have drawn that Christian charity which 
pervades the last sentence in which he so unconsciously de- 
scribes his own moral nature: 'with malice toward none, with 
charity for all, with firmness in the right as God gives us 
to see the right.' No other state paper in American annals, 
not even Washington's farewell address, has made so deep an 
impression upon the people as this. This paper in its solemn 
recognition of the justice of Almighty God reminds us of 
the words of the old Hebrew prophets." 

Mr. Arnold also tells us that a distinguished divine, after 
hearing the address, said: "The President's inaugural is the 
finest state paper in all history." He also informs us that a 
distinguished New York statesman hearing this declaration 
replied: "Yes, and as Washington's name grows brighter 
with time, so it will be with Lincoln. A century from today 
that inaugural will be read as one of the most sublime utter- 
ances ever spoken by man." 

Hon. Charles Sumner, who was always reserved and 
temperate in his commendation, said : "The inaugural address 
which signalized" President Lincoln's "entry for a second 



REMINISCENCES OF SECOND INAUGURATION 297 

time upon his great duties was briefer than any similar ad- 
dress in our history; but it has already gone farther, and 
will live longer than any other. It was a continuation of the 
Gettysburg speech, with the same sublimity and gentleness. 
Its concluding words were like an angelic benediction." 

Carl Schurz, in "The Writings of Abraham Lincoln," Vol. 
I., p. 67, says: "Lincoln's famous 'Gettysburg Speech' has 
been much and justly admired. But far greater, as well as 
far more characteristic, was that inaugural in which he poured 
out the whole devotion and tenderness of his great soul. It 
had all the solemnity of a father's last admonition and bless- 
ing to his children before he lay down to die." It "was 
like a sacred poem. No American President had ever spoken 
words like these to the American people. America never 
had a President who found such words in the depth of his 
heart." 

Former President R. B. Hayes, in September, 1878, said: 
"No statement of the true objects of the war more complete 
than this has ever been made. It includes them all — Nation- 
ality, Liberty, Equal Rights and Self-government. These 
are the principles for which the Union soldier fought, and 
which it was his aim to maintain and to perpetuate." 

We have assurance that the address "was read in Europe 
with the most profound attention." The London Times 
said: "It is the most sublime state paper of the century." 

Concerning it the London Spectator said: "We cannot 
read it without a renewed conviction that it is the noblest 
political document known to history, and should have for the 
nation and the statesmen he left behind him something of a 
sacred and almost prophetic character. Surely, none was 
ever written under a stronger sense of the reality of God's 
government. And certainly none written in a period of pas- 
sionate conflict ever so completely excluded the partiality of 
victorious faction, and breathed so pure a strain of mingled 
justice and mercy." 

Mr. Lincoln was always exceedingly reticent respecting 



298 LATEST LIGHT ON ABRAHAM LINCOLN 

any of his own speeches or Hterary productions. I cannot 
call to recollection one instance of his speaking in any degree 
of commendation concerning any of his speeches or writings 
save in his brief and modest statement to Thurlow Weed in 
a letter written eleven days after this address was delivered, 
in which he expresses his expectation that it will "wear as 
well as — perhaps better than — anything I have produced." 
All of which tends to show that the man was even greater 
than his words. 



II 

LINCOLN'S RELIGIOUS FAITH 

FIRST of all was Abraham Lincoln's marvelous faith 
in the Bible. Upon that faith as a foundation was 
built his entire personal superstructure. With that 
faith as an inspiration all his attitudes and activities were 
chosen and maintained. "Marvelous" is not too strong a 
word to use in designating his relation to the sacred Book. 
The Bible was to him the touchstone by which his judgment 
on every question was determined. In all his business affairs, 
in his professional pursuits, in his political affiliations, and 
in his personal aspirations and endeavors, it was his con- 
stant guide. "Owe no man anything but to love one another," 
was a rule which he sought to obey, not because it was con- 
venient but because it was a Bible admonition. Whatever 
was condemned by the Bible he stubbornly opposed. What- 
ever the Bible commended, he heartily approved, steadfastly 
defended and sought to promote. 

Abraham Lincoln first learned to read by slowly tracing 
the lines of chosen passages of Scripture under his mother's 
prayerful tuition. That tutelage was painstaking and devout, 
leaving in his memory sweet and sacred impressions which 
time could not erase. 

"Mrs. Lincoln possessed but one book in the world, the 
Bible," says Mrs. Trevena Jackson, "and from this book she 
taught her children daily. Abraham had been to school for 
two or three months, to such a school as the rude country 
afforded. Of quick mind and retentive memory, he soon came 
to know the Bible well-nigh by heart, and to look upon his 

299 



300 LATEST LIGHT ON ABRAHAM LINCOLN 

gentle teacher as the embodiment of all the good precepts in 
the book." ^ 

Thus from childhood he was Bible-bred and the Word of 
God was transmuted into his being and became the deter- 
mining influence in his moral development. He believed that 
Word as implicitly as he believed in his own existence. 

Some of his associates in his early manhood were pro- 
nounced skeptics and rejected the claims and teachings of 
the Scriptures, and during all his later years, even to the 
close of his life, he was in close professional and official re- 
lations and fellowship with men who openly denied the 
authenticity and divine inspiration of the Bible; but volumi- 
nous as are his published addresses and writings, they do not 
contain a single criticism of the Scriptures nor any word 
calculated to weaken their hold upon human esteem and con- 
fidence. And no one worthy to give trustworthy testimony 
upon this subject has yet arisen to disprove that assertion. 
Never flippantly nor in jest, but always with solemn and 
impressive reverence did he quote from the sacred Book. 

He regarded the declarations of Scripture as conclusive 
on any matter under consideration. Not a doubt of its au- 
thenticity or validity did he ever express or manifest, nor did 
he weaken its force by recognizing the possibility of doubt 
in the minds of others. It is both interesting and instructive 
to note the absolute confidence with which he applied the 
declarations of Scripture to the settlement of every question 
in dispute. The Bible was to him the court of last resort 
and his appeals to its teachings were always made with a 
manifest expectation that its verdict would be accepted as 
final. 

During the early fifties, Mr. Lincoln bestowed much 
thought upon religious subjects. Under the very able in- 
struction of Rev. James Smith, D.D., pastor of the first 
Presbyterian Church of Springfield, he was aided in reaching 
a very satisfactory and settled conclusion in favor of the 
* Lincoln's use of the Bible, p. 7. 



LINCOLN'S RELIGIOUS FAITH 301 

authenticity and divine inspiration of the Bible. During those 
years, probably in 1850, he was invited to deliver a lecture 
in the First Presbyterian Church of Springfield, under the 
auspices of the Bible Society of that city. The purpose of 
this lecture was to aid in an effort which at that time was 
being put forth to place a copy of the Holy Scriptures in 
every family in the state. To assist in that movement Mr. 
Lincoln delivered a very able and forceful address, at the 
conclusion of which he said: "It seems to me that nothing 
short of infinite wisdom could by any possibility have devised 
and given to man this excellent and perfect moral code. It 
is suited to men in all conditions of life, and includes all the 
duties they owe to their Creator, to themselves, and to their 
fellowmen." ^ 

Robert Browne, M. D., who was for many years on terms 
of intimacy with Mr. Lincoln and shared a degree of his 
confidence which was given to few men, in his excellent life 
of Lincoln, has this to say: 

In speaking of Paine's "Age of Reason," he laid it aside, 
saying: "I have looked through it, carelessly it is true; but 
there is nothing to such books. God rules this world, and out 
of seeming contradictions, that all these kind of reasoners 
seem unable to understand. He will develop and disclose His 
plans for men's welfare in His inscrutable way. Not all 
of Paine's nor all the French distempered stuff will make a 
man better, but worse. They might lay down tons and heaps 
of their heartless reasonings alongside a few of Christ's say- 
ings and parables, to find that He had said more for the 
benefit of our race in one of them than there is in all they 
have written. They might read His Sermon on the Mount 
to learn that there is more of justice, righteousness, kindness 
and mercy in it than in the minds and books of all the ignorant 
doubters from the beginning of human knowledge." ' 

During his conference with Hon. L. E. Chittenden, 

» Scrihne/s Magazine, July, 1873, P- 338. 

3 Abraham Lincoln and Men of his Time, Vol. II., p. 426. 



i 



302 LATEST LIGHT ON ABRAHAM LINCOLN 

Register of the Treasury, respecting the resignation of Sec- 
retary Sahnon P. Chase, and the appointment of his suc- 
cessor, Mr. Lincoln said: 

"The character of the Bible is easily established, at least 
to my satisfaction. We have to believe many things which 
we do not comprehend. The Bible is the only one that 
claims to be God's book — to comprise His law — His his- 
tory. It contains an immense amount of evidence of its own 
authenticity. It describes a governor omnipotent enough to 
operate this great machine, and declares that He made it. 
It states other facts which we fully do not comprehend, but 
which we cannot account for. What shall we do with them? 

"Now let us treat the Bible fairly. If we had a witness 
on the stand whose general story we knew was true, we would 
believe him when he asserted facts of which we had no other 
evidence. We ought to treat the Bible with equal fairness. 
I decided a long time ago that it was less difficult to believe 
that the Bible was what it claimed to be than to disbelieve it. 
It is a good Book for us to obey; it contains the ten com- 
mandments, the golden rule, and many other rules which 
ought to be followed. No man was ever the worse for living 
according to the directions of the Bible." 

"I could not press inquiry further," says Mr. Chittenden. 
"I knew that Mr. Lincoln was no hypocrite. There was an 
air of such sincerity in his manner of speaking, and especially 
in his references to the Almighty, that no one could have 
doubted his faith unless the doubter believed him dishonest. 

"Further comment cannot be necessary. Abraham Lin- 
coln accepted the Bible as the inspired Word of God — he 
believed and faithfully endeavored to live according to the 
fundamental principles and doctrines of the Christian faith. 
To doubt either proposition is to be untrue to his memory, 
a disloyalty of which no American should be guilty." * 

And it was not a mutilated Bible in which Abraham Lin- 
coln so confidently believed. It was the complete volume of 
* Recollections of President Lincoln, pp. 448-451. 



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DISCOVERIES AND INVENTIONS 

Facsimile of first page of the lecture supposed to have been lost. From 
photographs of the original manuscript now owned by Hon. Henry C. 
Melvin, Justice of the Supreme Court of California. 



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LINCOLN'S RELIGIOUS FAITH 303 

thirty-nine Old Testament books from which the Saviour 
quoted and to which He referred when He said "Search 
the Scriptures," together with the twenty-seven New Testa- 
ment books; it was the entire Bible, as commonly understood. 
All this with unquestioning confidence he accepted and quoted 
as divine revelation. 

Many have erroneously supposed that the lecture on 
"Discoveries and Inventions," which Mr. Lincoln prepared 
and delivered in 1859-60, was not preserved. Fortunately, 
the manuscript of that lecture was among the effects which 
Mr. Lincoln left in a satchel with Mrs. Grimsley at Spring- 
field, a few days before his departure for Washington to be 
inaugurated as President, and it has been carefully kept and 
is still in excellent condition. 

After Mr. Lincoln's death the satchel was opened and 
among the articles which it contained was the manuscript of 
that lecture, which was given to Dr. S. H. Melvin, one of 
Mr. Lincoln's intimate and devoted friends. Dr. Melvin was 
a man of great personal worth and a devout and faithful 
Christian. He was one of the committee sent to Washington 
by the people of Springfield to escort the remains of the 
martyr President to their final resting place in his home city. 

Subsequently Dr. Melvin became a resident of Oakland, 
California, where it was my privilege to be his near neighbor 
and to have many interesting and helpful interviews with 
him concerning Mr. Lincoln. Dr. Melvin kept the manuscript 
copy of the lecture with great care until his death, when it 
came into the possession of his son, Hon. Henry A. Melvin, 
one of the Justices of the Supreme Court of California, by 
whose courtesy I have been permitted to give the precious 
document a prolonged and careful examination and to repro- 
duce in facsimile in this chapter two of its pages. 

In that manuscript, Mr. Lincoln mentions Genesis, Exo- 
dus, and Deuteronomy "as the Books of Moses" and refers 
as follows to some of their historical records: "Before the 



304 LATEST LIGHT ON ABRAHAM LINCOLN 

fall man was put into the Garden of Eden to dress it and to 
keep it, 

"His (man's) first important discovery was the fact that 
he was naked, and his first invention was the fig leaf apron. 

"At the first interview of the Almighty with Adam and 
Eve, after the fall, he made coats of skins and clothed them. 
The Bible makes no allusion to clothing before the fall. Soon 
after the Deluge, Noah's two sons covered him with a gar- 
ment, but of what material the garment was made, is not 
mentioned. 

"Tubal Cain was the seventh in descent from Adam and 
his birth was about one thousand years before the flood." 

In speaking of inventions he refers to the Ark "as belong- 
ing rather to the miraculous than to human invention." He 
refers to "the first transgression and the penalty." He also 
mentions Abraham's act "preparatory to sacrificing Isaac as 
a burnt offering." "The Red Sea being safely passed, Moses 
and the Children of Israel sang to the Lord. 'The horse and 
his rider hath he thrown into the Sea.' 

"Abraham mentions 'thread' in such connection as to in- 
dicate that spinning and weaving were in use in his day 
(Genesis xiv, 23), and soon after, reference to the art is 
frequently made." 

"The above mention of thread by Abraham is the oldest 
recorded allusion to spinning and weaving; and it was made 
about two thousand years after the creation of man, and now 
near four thousand years ago. Profane authors think these 
arts originated in Egypt ; and this is not contradicted or made 
improbable by anything in the Bible ; for the allusion of Abra- 
ham mentioned was not made until after he had sojourned 
in Egypt. 

"The oldest recorded allusion to the wheel and axle is 
the mention of a 'chariot' (Genesis xi:43). This was in 
Egypt, upon the occasion of Joseph being made Governor by 
Pharaoh. It was about twenty-five hundred years after the 
creation of Adam. 



LINCOLN'S RELIGIOUS FAITH 305 

"Joseph's brethren, on their first visit to Egypt, 'laded 
their asses with the corn, and departed thence.' " 

These quotations were all carefully made with full desig- 
nation of the books, chapters and verses in which they are 
found in the Bible. They are all in Mr. Lincoln's lecture on 
"Discoveries and Inventions," from the original manuscript 
of which, in Mr. Lincoln's own handwriting, I have made 
these quotations. 

It should be remembered that this lecture was prepared 
by Mr. Lincoln after he had attained nation-wide fame by his 
debates with Stephen A. Douglas, and it was delivered in 
Springfield on the 22nd day of February, i860, only five days 
before his great speech at Cooper Institute in New York. It 
was, however, before the new birth of deeper and fuller 
spiritual realization into which he was ushered by his call 
to the Presidency and the overwhelming sense of responsi- 
bility and of human helplessness which caused him to humble 
himself before God, and to search the Scriptures with greater 
diligence and stronger faith than ever before. 

And yet at that height of personal vigor, when men are 
most self-reliant and inclined to skepticism, with his spirit 
unchastened by sorrow and unsobered by responsibility, he 
holds up as authentic and valid, not a Bible composed of 
selected portions of ancient Scriptures, but the complete 
volume of revealed Truth, which the Church regards, and 
which he at that time and ever after regarded as an accurate 
historical record and an infallible rule of faith and practice. 
Mr. Lincoln's purpose in making these quotations from the 
Scripture was to give reliable, historical information concern- 
ing the matter under consideration. He quoted from the Bible 
because he had unquestioning confidence in its historical 
records. In so doing he declares his belief in the commonly 
accepted teachings of Scripture respecting the following im- 
portant matters: Antiquity of Scriptural records; commonly 
accepted Bible chronology; Mosaic authorship of the Penta- 
teuch; account of the Creation of Man; Transgression and 



3o6 LATEST LIGHT ON ABRAHAM LINCOLN 

Fall; Penalty for Man's Transgression; Fig-leaf covering; 
divinely provided garments of animal skins; Deluge; Build- 
ing of the Ark; Noah's intoxication; Abraham's offering of 
Isaac; Story of Joseph; Bondage in Egypt; and Crossing the 
Red Sea. 

All who know how scrupulously careful Mr. Lincoln 
always was never knowingly to make false impressions, will 
agree in declaring that he would not have made these quota- 
tions had he entertained a doubt of their absolute historical 
accuracy. If he had regarded any of those records as alle- 
gorical or in any way less than reliable history he would 
not have referred to them as he did in this carefully prepared 
address. The same may be said of other literature in which 
Mr. Lincoln so mentions the Bible and quotes from its records 
as to express his belief in the scriptural account of the fol- 
lowing: Cain's murder of Abel; the great age of Methuselah; 
the finding of the infant Moses by Pharaoh's daughter ; the 
Angel of Death in Egypt; the Plagues inflicted upon Egypt; 
Haman's Gallows and his execution; the Miraculous healing 
of the Gadarene; the Miracle of the Loaves and Fishes; the 
Saviour's Agony and Prayer in Gethsemane; and the 
Saviour's Sufferings upon the Cross. 

Vibrant with love, the love of a great heart for its most 
cherished object of affection, are the words which were 
spoken by President Lincoln when on September 7th, 1864, 
upon receiving from some colored people of Baltimore a copy 
of the Holy Scriptures, he said : "In regard to this great Book 
I have but to say, It is the best gift God has given to man. 
All the good Saviour gave to the world was communicated 
through this Book. But for It we could not know right from 
wrong. All things most desirable for man's welfare, here 
and hereafter, are to be found portrayed In It." ° 

How like the tribute which an Impassioned lover pays 
to the object of his heart's delight is this expression of Presi- 
dent Lincoln's personal regard for "the great Book of God." 
5 Complete Works of Abraham Lincoln, Vol. X., p. 218. 



LINCOLN'S RELIGIOUS FAITH 307 

Those who, having heard him speak, as was my privilege, 
and noted the irresistible impressiveness with which he always 
modulated his wonderful voice when he referred to or quoted 
from the Bible, will in imagination hear the melting melody 
of which there can be no reproduction, as they read the above 
sublime utterance from as pure and sincere a heart as ever 
throbbed with human love and admiration. 

A skillful gardener, when asked what he did to his flowers 
to cause them to be so beautiful, proudly replied, "I love 
them." No further explanation was necessary; so the mys- 
terious influence of the Bible upon the life and works of Abra- 
ham Lincoln is fully explained by his affectionate regard for 
the sacred Volume. Lincoln loved the Bible. He not only 
accepted it in its entirety as the revealed Word of God, but 
he could say as did the Psalmist, "O, how love I thy law! 
It is my meditation all the day." 

It was that love which bound him with fetters of enrap- 
tured constraint to the diligent study of the sacred Word, a 
passion of which all his associates were compelled to take 
note. It was that love that so opened his mind to the decla- 
rations he thus studied as to cause them to remain fixed in 
his recollection, and be transmuted into the exalted character 
which continues to be the wonder and admiration of the 
world. 

In a letter to Miss Mary Speed, in 1841, when he was 
thirty-two years old, he wrote: "Tell your mother that I have 
not got her 'present' (an Oxford Bible) with me, but I intend 
to read it regularly when I return home. I doubt not that 
it is really, as she says, the best cure for the blues, could 
one but take it according to the truth. "^ 

How faithfully he kept his promise to read the Bible 
regularly is shown by the many quotations from the Scrip- 
tures which are found in his speeches and writings during 
succeeding years. His mind seemed stored with Bible truth 
and he was never at a loss for a passage just suited to his 

« Complete Works of Abraham Lincoln, Vol. I., p. i8o. 



3o8 LATEST LIGHT ON ABRAHAM LINCOLN 

needs. In addition to the fact of his famiharity with the 
Bible are his own declarations, and the statements of others, 
respecting his diligent Bible study. 

Colonel W. H. Crook, who was for years President Lin- 
coln's highly esteemed and trusted bodyguard, says: 'The 
daily life of Mr. and Mrs. Lincoln usually commenced at 
eight o'clock, and immediately upon dressing the President 
would go into the library, where he would sit in his favorite 
chair in the middle of the room and read a chapter or two 
of his Bible. I think I am safe in saying that this was 
President Lincoln's invariable custom — at least it was such 
during the time I was on duty with him." 

Mr. Alexander Williamson, who was engaged as tutor in 
the Lincoln family in Washington, said: "Mr. Lincoln very 
frequently studied the Bible with the aid of Cruden's Con- 
cordance, which lay on his table." * 

It is undoubtedly true that Mr. Lincoln had fixed times 
for Bible study as here stated by Colonel Crook and Mr. 
Williamson, and that at such times he put aside every care 
and thought, and gave whole-hearted and undivided attention 
to the teachings of God's Word. But in addition to this it 
was his custom to pick up his Bible as opportunities were 
presented between public duties and whenever a few minutes 
could be given to its perusal, and in some secluded nook or 
at an open window at the evening hour, read and meditate 
upon its teachings. Some striking instances in which this 
occurred are here given. 

Elizabeth Keckley, thirty years a slave and four years a 
companion and dressmaker for Mrs. Lincoln, in the White 
House, says: 

"One day Mr. Lincoln came into the room where I was 
fitting a dress for Mrs. Lincoln. His step was slow and heavy 
and his face was sad. Like a tired child he threw himself 
upon a sofa and shaded his eyes with his hands. He was a 

''Memories of the White House, p. 15. 
8 Lincohi's use of the Bible, p. 8. 



LINCOLN'S RELIGIOUS FAITH 309 

complete picture of dejection. Mrs. Lincoln observing his 
troubled look asked, 'Where have you been, father?' 

" To the War Department,' was the brief almost sullen 
answer. 

" 'Any news?' 

" 'Yes, plenty of news, but no good news. It is dark, dark 
everywhere.' 

"He reached forth one of his long arms and took a small 
Bible from a stand near the head of the sofa, opened the 
pages of the Holy Book and soon was absorbed in reading 
them. A quarter of an hour passed, and on glancing at the 
sofa the face of the President seemed more cheerful. The 
dejected look was gone and the countenance was lighted up 
with new resolution and hope. The change was so marked 
that I could not but wonder at it, and wonder led to the 
desire to know what book of the Bible afforded so much com- 
fort to the reader. Making the search for a missing article 
an excuse, I walked gently around the sofa and looking into 
the open book I discovered that Mr. Lincoln was reading 
that Divine Comforter Job. He read with Christian eager- 
ness and the courage and hope that he derived from the in- 
spired pages made him a new man. I almost imagined that 
I could hear the Lord speaking to him from out the whirl- 
wind battle, 'Gird up thy loins now, like a man ; I will demand 
of thee and declare thou unto me.' "® 

On May 4th, 1862, Mr. Lincoln, with Secretaries Chase 
and Stanton, made a trip to Fortress Monroe on an important 
mission. During their sojourn at that place some very excit- 
ing events occurred, including the taking of Norfolk and the 
consequent destruction by the Confederates of the ironclad 
Mcrrimac, which had been until the advent of the Monitor, 
such a terror to Government vessels. On their return from 
that trip, though all were at a high tension, Mr. Lincoln with- 
drew from the company and when found was, according to 
the statement of a Mr. Jay, sitting in a secluded corner of the 
^Elizabeth Keckley, Behind the Scenes, pp. 1 18-120. 



3IO LATEST LIGHT ON ABRAHAM LINCOLN 

vessel, absorbed in reading his pocket edition of the New 
Testament. 

In the summer of 1864, Hon. Joshua F. Speed, one of 
Mr. Lincoln's closest friends, was invited to spend a night 
with the President and his family at the Soldiers' Home, near 
the city of Washington. Respecting an incident which oc- 
curred during that visit Mr. Speed says: 

"As I entered the room, near night, he was sitting near 
a window intently reading his Bible. Approaching I said, 
T am glad to see you so profitably engaged.' 
" 'Yes,' he said, T am profitably engaged.' 
" 'Well,' said I, 'if you have recovered from your skep- 
ticism, I am sorry to say I have not.' 

"Looking me earnestly in the face and placing his hand 
on my shoulder, he said: 'You are wrong, Speed. Take 
all of this book upon reason that you can and the balance on 
faith and you will live and die a happier and better man.' '"" 
Dr. Robert Browne, to whom reference already has been 
made, says: 

"Mr. Lincoln read his Bible every day. He held it to be 
his treasure and indisputable authority. In its texts and 
principles he founded the basis of every argument or declara- 
tion he ever used against slavery. He did this, too, in his 
remarkable progress and high distinction as a lawyer. In 
the same way he grounded his belief and framed his reason- 
ing on his land and debt reforms in profound respect and 
obedience to divine authority. He referred often to Matt. 
7:12. 'Therefore all things whatsoever ye would that men 
should do to you, do ye even so to them; for this is the law 
and the prophets.' " " 

This habitual Bible study caused Mr. Lincoln to become 
so familiar with the Bible that he could often use passages 
and incidents to great advantage in conversation with those 
who called upon him at the White House. An exceedingly 

^° Reminiscences of Abraham Lincoln, p. 32. 

11 Abraham Lincoln and the Men of his Time, Vol. IL, p. 633. - 



LINCOLN'S RELIGIOUS FAITH 311 

interesting instance of this is given by Tliomas F. Pendleton, 
who was for many years doorkeeper at the White House: 

"One day a man with a very swarthy complexion came in, 
wearing a silk hat and a Prince Albert coat. You would have 
taken him at first glance for a minister of the gospel. He 
commenced finding fault with Mr. Stanton, accusing him of 
not carrying out the order that President Lincoln had given 
two weeks before to have a certain man liberated from prison 
who had been sentenced to death but was pardoned. 

"Mr. Lincoln listened patiently to his complaint and then 
said emphatically: 'If it had not been for me that man 
would now be in his grave. Now, sir, you claim to be a 
philanthropist. If you will get your Bible and turn to the 
30th chapter of Proverbs, the tenth verse, you will read these 
words: 'Accuse not a servant unto his master, lest he curse 
thee and thou be found guilty.' Whereupon the man got 
huffy and went away. But as he went out he said angrily, 
'There is no such passage in the Bible.' 'Oh, yes,' said 
Mr. Lincoln, T think you will find it in the 30th chapter 
of Proverbs and at the tenth verse.' 

"This was late in the afternoon and I thought no more of 
the occurrence. Next morning I was at Mr. Lincoln's office 
door as usual at eight o'clock and heard some one calling 
out, 'Oh, Pendleton, I say Pendleton, come in here.' When 
I went inside Mr. Lincoln said to me: 'Wait a minute.' 
He stepped quickly into the private part of the house and 
soon reappeared with his Bible in his hand. He then sat 
down and read to me that identical passage he had quoted to 
the philanthropist, and sure enough it was found to be in 
the 30th chapter of Proverbs, and at the tenth verse. 

"In those days I was not much of a Bible reader, but in 
1865 I decided that all-important question whether or not I 
should not be a follower of the Lord Jesus. I commenced 
reading a little old Bible that I had bought at the second- 
hand store. . . . One day I came across that same passage 
which Mr. Lincoln had quoted to the angry philanthropist. 



312 LATEST LIGHT ON ABRAHAM LINCOLN 

The whole occurrence came back to me and I thought what 
a just man was the President. He was not even wiUing for 
me to be in doubt as to his correct quotation of a Bible pas- 
sage but must needs take his precious time to prove himself 
right in my eyes."^^ 

During his service in Congress, on May 2ist, 1848, in a 
somewhat infelicitous correspondence with Rev. J. M. Peck, 
with reference to some acts under consideration, Mr. Lin- 
coln said: "Possibly you consider those acts too small for 
notice. Would you venture to so consider them had they been 
committed by any nation on earth against the humblest of 
our people? I know you would not. Then I ask, is the 
precept, 'Whatsoever ye would that men should do to you, 
do ye even so to them,' obsolete? of no force? of no appli- 
cation?'"' 

During the preceding year, in a speech in Congress on 
the tariff, December ist, 1847, ^^- Lincoln said: "In the 
early days of our race the Almighty said to the first of our 
race, 'In the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread'; and since 
then, if we except the light and air of heaven, no good thing 
has been or can be enjoyed by us without having first cost 
labor."" 

In his eulogy on Henry Clay, Mr. Lincoln said: 
"Pharaoh's country was cursed with plagues and his hosts 
were lost in the Red Sea for striving to retain a captive people 
who had already served them for more than four hundred 
years. May this disaster never befall us !"^^ 

In his speech at Peoria, Illinois, October i6th, 1854, he 
said: "God did not place good and evil before man, telling 
him to make his choice. On the contrary. He did tell him 
there was one tree of the fruit of which he should not eat, 
upon pain of certain death. "^® 

12 Thirty-six Years in the White House, pp. 25-26. 

13 Complete Works of Abraham Lincoln, Vol. II., p. 26. 
" Ibid., Vol. I., p. 306. 

« Ibid., Vol. II., p. 177. 
16 Ibid., p. 253. 



LINCOLN'S RELIGIOUS FAITH 313 

At Alton, Illinois, October 15th, 1858, in his closing 
speech of the great debate with Douglas, Mr. Lincoln said: 
"He (Douglas) has warred upon them (Lincoln's sentiments) 
as Satan wars upon the Bible."^^ 

Even in foreign lands, Mr. Lincoln was known as a devout 
Bible student, as indicated by the following from Richard 
Lovell, A.M., London: "Lincoln's nature was deeply religious. 
From boyhood he had been familiar with the Bible and as 
the years passed his belief and trust in God's overruling and 
active providence in the affairs of men and nations ever 
deepened."^* 

As Trevena Jackson says: "The spirit of the Bible was 
built into Lincoln's boyhood, expanded in his young man- 
hood, ripened in his middle age, sustained him when sorrows 
seared his soul, and gave to him a grip upon God, man, free- 
dom, and immortality. The influence of the Bible upon him 
gave him reverence for God and His will; for Christianity 
and its Christ; for the Holy Spirit and its help; for prayer 
and its power; for praise and its purpose; for the immortal 
impulse and its inspiration."^^ 

In 1901, in an address before the American Bible Society 
on "Reading the Bible," former President Roosevelt made 
the following tender statements respecting Lincoln's fa- 
miliarity with the Bible: "Lincoln, sad, patient, kindly Lin- 
coln, who, after bearing upon his shoulders for four years 
a greater burden than that borne by any other man of the 
Nineteenth century, laid down his life for the people whom, 
living, he had served so well, built up his entire reading upon 
his study of the Bible. He had mastered it absolutely, mas- 
tered it as later he mastered only one or two other books, 
notably Shakespeare, mastered it so that he became almost 
a man of one book who knew that book, and who instinctively 
put into practice what he had been taught therein; and he 

Incomplete Works of Abraham Lincoln, Vol. V., p. 45. 

18 Abraham Lincoln, p. 16. 

19 Lincoln's use of the Bible, p. 35. 



314 LATEST LIGHT ON ABRAHAM LINCOLN 

left his life as part of the crowning work of the century 
just closed."^" 

Investigating the religious faith of Abraham Lincoln 
is like working a vein of high-grade ore, which increases in 
width and in richness as the work of mining progresses. 
It is more than five decades since I first began to prosecute 
my researches on this subject. These researches began dur- 
ing the year i860, after Mr. Lincoln had become the repub- 
lican candidate for President of the United States, being 
suggested by the volume published that year as a campaign 
document which contained not only the speeches by Lincoln 
and Douglas, but also some of Mr. Lincoln's most notable 
speeches prior and subsequent to those famous debates. In 
addition to his own declarations concerning religious matters 
I have sought, with great care, to collate information respect- 
ing his faith from the testimonies of those with whom he 
was most intimately associated. As this investigation has 
proceeded I have found the subject becoming increasingly 
fascinating and instructive; and with the product of my 
prolonged researches before me I am profoundly im- 
pressed by the clear and unequivocal evidence furnished of 
Mr. Lincoln's firm belief in the most vital features of Christian 
truth. 

The first scriptural truth learned by Abraham Lincoln 
was doubtless that stated in the first four words of the Bible: 
"In the beginning God." That truth which, as a mere child 
he was taught by his godly mother, became and continued to 
be the foundation upon which was erected his entire system 
of religious faith. His belief in a Supreme Being was at 
once fundamental and all-dominant in his faith and life. 

It may be only a mere fancy, but it is exceedingly inter- 
esting and suggestive, that the earliest fragment of his auto- 
graph now known to be in existence is the following rhyme 
written in his copy book when he was only fourteen years 
old: 

20 Lincoln's use of the Bible, p. 10. 



LINCOLN'S RELIGIOUS FAITH 315 

"Abraham Lincoln 
his hand and pen. 
he will be good but 
god knows When." 

It Is profoundly significant that this child of destiny, at 
his life's early morning, in clumsy but impressive verse thuS 
reverently coupled his own name with that of his Creator, 
and that the hand which afterwards wrote the Emancipation 
Proclamation first learned to use a pen by laboriously writing 
a declaration of belief In a Supreme Being. 

The significance of this youthful testimony to the exist- 
ence and omniscience of God Is not In the least degree de- 
pendent upon his comprehension of the full meaning of what 
he wrote. If It be claimed that his words have a meaning 
beyond his own understanding It will serve only to remind 
us that the same has often been true of literary productions. 
If he employed hackneyed terms or transcribed what others 
before had written he was as I believe In so doing uncon- 
sciously following a deeper Impulse of the heart. 

He used the name of God in the most natural and un- 
studied manner because his belief in God pervaded his being, 
and he referred to the Divine omniscience as the spontaneous 
expression of the faith which he received from his mother's 
instruction. 

I am not claiming for this fragment of a Lincoln manu- 
script any direct divine Inspiration. But I cannot regard 
and treat it as belonging to a class with those manuscripts 
which simply tell of Mr. Lincoln's early educational pursuits. 
It Is certainly more significant than are they In that It bears 
witness to his early matter of fact trend of thought which 
moved steadily in the direction of an ever-Increasing compre- 
hension of God. 

That trend of thought was with him like an undevlating 
and unhindered approach from dawn to daylight, and resulted 
in an expansion of soul, enlargement of spiritual vision and 



3i6 LATEST LIGHT ON ABRAHAM LINCOLN 

deepened religious experience, until he seems to have found 
and rested upon a satisfying and sustaining faith. 

The Scripture admonition, "Acquaint now thyself with 
him and be at peace" (Job 22:21), was one to which he gave 
constant heed. He sought to know God; to know Him as 
revealed "in the heavens above and in the earth beneath;" 
to know Him as revealed in His holy Word ; to know Him as 
revealed in Jesus Christ, and to know Him as revealed in per- 
sonal religious experience. This continued until Lincoln real- 
ized in his own being the fulfillment of the promise, 'Thou 
shalt keep him in perfect peace, whose mind is stayed on thee 
because he trusteth in thee." (Isa. 26:3.) This could not 
be otherwise since with all his heart and soul he believed in 

Divine Omnipotence 

In his first inaugural address delivered March 4th, 1861, 
Mr. Lincoln said: "If the Almighty Ruler of Nations, with 
His eternal truth and justice, be on your side of the North, 
or on yours of the South, that truth and that justice will 
surely prevail by the judgment of this great tribunal of the 
American people. "^^ 

In reply to a letter from Mrs, Horace Mann, on behalf 
of a class of children in whom she was interested. President 
Lincoln on April 5th, 1864, sent the following beautiful 
message: "Please tell these little people that I am very glad 
their young hearts are so full of just and generous sympathy, 
and that, while I have not the power to grant all they ask, 
I trust they v»^ill remember that God has, and that, as it 
seems, He wills to do it."^" 

In his "Meditation on Divine Will," which is 'supposed 
to have been written September 30th, 1862, he says: "By 
His (that is God's) mere great power on the minds of the 
now contestants, He could have either saved or destroyed the 

21 Complete Works of Abraham Lincoln, Vol. VI., p. 183. 

22 Ibid., Vol. X., pp. 68-69. 



LINCOLN'S RELIGIOUS FAITH 317 

Union without a human contest. Yet the contest began. And, 
having begun, He could give the final victory to either side 
any day."^^ 

Ihese declarations of Mr. Lincoln abundantly justify the 
following comprehensive and significant testimony of Hon. 
H. C. Whitney, who knew him intimately for many years: 
"Logically and inevitably, therefore, he believed in God; in 
His superintending providence; in His intervention in mun- 
dane affairs for the weal of the race. To Him he made 
report ; from Him he took counsel ; at His hands he implored 
current aid ; he ascribed glory and thanks to Him ; he recog- 
nized Him as the Supreme Good. God came to him moni- 
torially; with succor; with good cheer; with victory. He 
confounded the counsels of his accusers; He made the wrath 
of his enemies to minister to his good ; His direct intervention 
the President experienced in many ways. Lincoln acknowl- 
edged all with a grateful heart; he ordered national thanks- 
givings and praises on every suitable occasion. Therefore, 
he had more proofs to warrant his belief, and believed more 
implicitly in God, and approached nearer to Him than any 
man of the race since Moses, the lawgiver."^* 

These statements of Mr. Lincoln's belief in the omnipo- 
tence of God are not more clear or emphatic than are those 
concerning 

Divine Omniscience 

"The all-wise Creator," "An all-wise Providence," and 
similar statements appear many times in Mr. Lincoln's writ- 
ings, and bear witness to his unquestioning confidence in the 
infinite knowledge and wisdom of God. 

On September 4th, 1864, at a time when according to his 
own deliberate statements he was in doubt relative to his 
re-election, in a letter to Mrs. Eliza P. Gurney, a devout 
Christian woman of the Society of Friends, he said: "The 

23 Complete Works of Abraham Lincoln, Vol. VIII., p. 52. 
-* Lincoln, the Citizen, pp. 203-204. 



3i8 LATEST LIGHT ON ABRAHAM LINCOLN 

purposes of the Almighty are perfect, and must prevail, 
though we erring mortals may fail to accurately perceive them 
in advance. We hoped for a happy termination of this ter- 
rible war long before this ; but God knows best, and has ruled 
otherwise. We shall yet acknowledge His wisdom and our 
own error therein. Meanwhile we must work earnestly in 
the best light He gives us, trusting that so working still con- 
duces to the great ends He ordains. Surely He intends some 
great good to follow this mighty convulsion, which no mortal 
could make, and no mortal could stay."^^ 

Divine Omnipresence 

The most famous Hebrew poetry never rose to a higher 
level of grandeur, nor did it ever express more comfortingly 
the thought of God's environing presence, than did the sub- 
limely simple words of Abraham Lincoln spoken on the nth 
of February, 1861, when taking leave of his friends and 
neighbors: 'Trusting in Him who can go with me, and remain 
with you, and be everywhere for good, let us confidently hope 
that all will yet be well."'* 

These words, in my judgment, are worthy of being put 
alongside the sublime utterances on divine omnipresence 
found in the 139th Psalm, or in the climax of Paul's masterly 
oration delivered to the Athenians on Mars Hill. 

*5 Complete Works of Abraham Lincoln, Vol. X., pp. 215-216. 
26 Ibid., Vol. VI., p. HO. 



I 



III 

LINCOLN'S RELIGIOUS FAITH— CONTINUED 

N the forefront of Mr. Lincoln's religious thinking was 
his behef in 

The Saviour's Deity 



That belief was expressed by him in clear and unequivocal 
language. The teachings of Scripture relative to this doctrine 
are not more lucid than was the declaration of Mr. Lincoln 
when, in that wonderful unbosoming of himself to Dr. New- 
ton Bateman a few weeks before his first election as President, 
as Dr. Holland tells us, he said: 'T know I am right, for 
Christ says so, and Christ is God." ^ 

A few weeks later, after his election as President and 
before his inauguration, he said to his lifelong friend, Judge 
Joseph Gillispie: "I have read on my knees the story of 
Gethsemane, where the Son of God prayed in vain that the 
cup of bitterness might pass from Him."^ 

Perhaps quite as significant as any specific statement of 
Mr. Lincoln respecting the Saviour's deity was his oft-re- 
peated mention of Him as "our Lord." Again and again, 
in speeches, in conversation and in his correspondence does 
Mr. Lincoln thus speak of the Saviour; and there was always 
a peculiar manifestation of solemnity and reverence when 
those words fell from his lips. Those of us who were privi- 
leged to hear him utter those words will never doubt his 
belief that Jesus Christ had to him "all the religious value 
of God," as a modern school of religious thought has phrased 

^ Life of Abraham Lincoln, p. 238. 

2 H. C. Whitney, Lincoln the Citizen, p. 201, 

319 



320 LATEST LIGHT ON ABRAHAM LINCOLN 

it. There is heart-melting pathos in the Httle siory so beauti- 
fully told by Mr. and Mrs. Ralph Emerson, two Christian peo- 
ple of Rockford, Illinois, who stood perhaps as close to Mr. 
Lincoln as did any human beings outside of his own family. 
In reporting a time of special communing they say: "During 
that trip we walked down on the river, and the conversation 
turned on a trip to Palestine and Jerusalem. Lincoln's counte- 
nance seemed at once to light up and he exclaimed, 'Yes, to 
tread the ground the Saviour trod !' Never from other human 
lips have I heard the word 'Saviour' pronounced with such 
deep earnestness. Apparently absorbed with the two thoughts 
of the evils of slavery and of the Saviour, we wandered on in 
silence and so parted."^ 

Mr. Lincoln also believed in 

The Saviour's Temptation 

The story of that mysterious experience of the Saviour 
which is a part of the New Testament record would naturally 
appeal to one so greatly tried as was Mr. Lincoln, and it may 
be reasonably claimed that had he made no reference to the 
matter himself, he could properly be regarded as believing in 
that story. But Mr. Lincoln has made such inference un- 
necessary by his own declarations relative to the matter. 

In his letter to Dr. Ide and Senator Doolittle, dated May 
30th, 1864, he declared that the conduct of some Southern 
leaders "contemned and insulted God and His Church far 
more than did Satan whem he tempted the Saviour with the 
kingdoms of earth. The devil's attempt was no more false, 
and far less hypocritical."* 

Hard to understand as is the above mentioned event in 
the life of the Saviour it is certain that Mr. Lincoln accepted 
it as not only authentic and true but as full of significance and 
meaning. With all his heart and soul, as indicated by his oft- 

3 Mr. and Mrs. Ralph Emerson, Personal Recollections of Abraham Lin- 
coln, pp. 10-12. 
* Complete Works of Abraham Lincoln, Vol. X., p. log. 



LINCOLN'S RELIGIOUS FAITH 321 

repeated declarations, Mr. Lincoln believed in the supreme 
authority of 

The Saviour's Teachings 

If from all that Mr. Lincoln has written and said there 
could be taken that which he quotes from the teachings of 
Christ, and his own interpretation and application of those 
teachings, but little of value would be left. Prominent among 
his many quotations from the words of Jesus are the follow- 
ing: 

"A house divided against itself cannot stand." 
This quotation was made not only the keynote of that 
great speech at Springfield by which Mr. Lincoln first at- 
tracted the attention of the nation, but also expressed the 
dominant thought in his subsequent political program. 

"Whatsoever ye would that men should do unto you, do 
ye even so unto them." 

These words of the Saviour were by Mr. Lincoln accepted 
as the "Golden Rule" which makes the golden life; and were 
by him adopted as a full and satisfactory statement of the 
portion of his religious creed pertaining to human conduct. 
"Woe unto the world because of offenses." 
This declaration of Jesus stands out in the second in- 
augural address as the marvelously fitting statement of Mr. 
Lincoln's distinguishing belief in the great doctrine of divine 
retribution. 

"Let us judge not that we be not judged." 
By these words, Mr. Lincoln in that inaugural calls for 
the exercise of self-restraint. After referring to the surprise 
which might be felt in view of the prayers of professed Chris- 
tians for divine aid in their efforts to maintain slavery, he 
virtually admonished himself and others to refrain from hasty 
and uncharitable judgment. This seems the more significant 
when it is remembered that several months previous to this 
occasion, when Mr. Lincoln was moved to express with sever- 
ity his opinion of the conduct of professed followers of Christ, 



322 LATEST LIGHT ON ABRAHAM LINCOLN 

who not only sought to enslave their fellows but had gone to 
war against their government in order that they might pro- 
tect and promote slavery, he said: "But I must forbear, 
remembering that it is also said: 'J^^g^ ^^t that ye be not 
judged.' " 

Very beautiful and instructive is Mr. Lincoln's reference 
to 

"The lost sheep." 

The significance of Mr. Lincoln's reference to this parable 
of the Saviour, and his designating of Judge Douglas as fit- 
tingly represented by the lost and endangered sheep, should be 
considered in connection with the Saviour's own interpreta- 
tion of this parable when he said: "Even so there shall be 
joy in heaven over one sinner that repenteth more than over 
ninety and nine righteous persons which need no repentance."^ 

Among the numberless citations that might be given are 
the following: 

"By their fruits ye shall know them." 

"He notes the falling sparrow." 

"The hairs of your head are numbered." 

As early as 1850, in a tender letter to his stepbrother, 
written to be read to his own dying father, Mr. Lincoln 
quoted the last two of these sayings of Jesus in proof of the 
Heavenly Father's tenderness and minute, supervising care. 

Still earlier, namely, in 1842, in his famous temperance 
speech Mr. Lincoln refers to the "unpardonable sin," for the 
purpose of expressing the conviction that such was not 
chargeable to the drunkard; but that he was an object of 
divine compassion and of tender mercy. The text 

"Be ye perfect even as your Father, which is in heaven, 
is perfect," 

was quoted by Mr. Lincoln as a statement of the exalted aims 
which should characterize every Christian. 

During the period between his first election and his in- 
auguration as President, Mr. Lincoln was urged by some 
5 Matt. 15 : 7. 



LINCOLN'S RELIGIOUS FAITH 323 

anxious friends throughout the nation to make a pubHc mani- 
festo of his principles and purposes that would quiet the ap- 
prehensions of the Southern people. To this he replied by 
calling attention to the many statements he already had made, 
and, having driven home the nail he clinched it by saying: 

"If they hear not Moses and the prophets, neither will they 
be persuaded though one rose from the dead."" 

Immensely significant is this quotation from that dramatic 
and searching illustration employed by the Saviour to repre- 
sent the sin and the danger of human incorrigibility. The 
Saviour's reference to 

'The blood of righteous Abel," and His declaration that 

"He that is not with me is against me," 
were most appropriately quoted by Mr. Lincoln not only to 
express his belief in the Saviour's teachings but also to make 
effective the instruction he was seeking to impart. 

"Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of these, 
ye have done it unto me." 

It is worthy of note that by these words Mr. Lincoln re- 
buked some thoughtless boys for their unkindness to one of 
their number. But why multiply examples? The speeches, 
letters and recorded conversations of Lincoln teem with al- 
lusions to the Saviour's teachings, and the use made of them 
affords indubitable evidence that he accepted them as divinely 
inspired. Mr. Lincoln believed also in 

The Saviour's Miracles 

His reference to the miracle of the loaves and fishes, and 
to the case of the Gadarene swineherder who was cured, 
clothed and brought into his right mind, very clearly indicate 
his belief in the miracle-working power of Christ ; and doubt- 
less he regarded with unquestioning acceptance all the other 
miracles of the New Testament. 

He also believed in 

* Complete Works o£ Abraham Lincoln, Vol. VI., p. 64. 



324 LATEST LIGHT ON ABRAHAM LINCOLN 

The Saviour's Suffering and Death 

There was probably no time in all his sad, weary life when 
his sufferings were so exquisite and so devoid of all allevia- 
tion as during that period to which reference already has been 
made, between his first election as President and his inaugura- 
tion. Utterly unable to lift a hand to avert or delay the 
calamity he saw sweeping down upon the nation he could but 
suffer in silence looking on from the distance, while the fires 
were rapidly kindling to consume the nation. And to his 
mind it was not unfitting that he should refer, as he did in 
conversation with Judge Gillispie, to the Saviour's sufferings 
in Gethsemane, as illustrative of his own inability to find 
relief from the agony through which he was passing. 

In his notes prepared in 1850 for a lecture on Niagara 
Falls he refers to the fact that the wonderful cataract was in 
activity "when Christ suffered on the cross." Concerning the 
fundamental truth of Christ's atoning sacrifice Abraham Lin- 
coln never faltered. It sometimes may have seemed to him an 
unfathomable mystery as it does to all; but his cast of mind 
and the methods by which he gained his wonderful knowledge 
of law, enabled him to understand in some measure the phil- 
osophy of the divine plan for human salvation, and to give 
atonement for sin its necessary and proper place. If he did 
not frequently refer to this doctrine, that may merely indicate 
how inseparable from the Christian system he regarded it. 
Believing in the gospel story of the life, death and resurrec- 
tion of Christ, and speaking of Him with the greatest tender- 
ness "as the good Saviour" he could no more doubt the doc- 
trine of atonement than he could disbelieve in his own exist- 
ence. And fully characteristic of his habits and style, was the 
course he pursued in treating his belief in the atonement as a 
matter of course, and in referring to it only as occasions made 
it necessary. 

But there were occasions on which Mr. Lincoln's declara- 
tions concerning this matter were clear and comprehensive. 



LINCOLN'S RELIGIOUS FAITH 325 

Those who would fain make him out an unbeliever, have re- 
peated with tireless industry the falsehood respecting his hav- 
ing, in early life, written a manuscript against Christianity 
which a friend snatched from his hands and cast into the fire. 
This story, which could have originated only in malice and 
concealed revenge, has been shown to have no other founda- 
tion than the burning of a letter which referred to matters of 
rivalry in love. And instead of having written an attack upon 
Christianity, it has been proven beyond question, that in 1833, 
the time referred to, Mr. Lincoln while investigating religious 
matters prepared with great care an article on the compassion 
and mercy of God, in which he claimed that all the evil conse- 
quences of Adam's transgression found a full and sufficient 
remedy in the sufferings and death of Christ. "As in Adam 
all die, so in Christ shall all be made alive," was the passage 
of Scripture by which the young lawyer sought to prove the 
perfect efficacy of the work of atonement. That passage of 
Scripture was commonly quoted in those days, and by many 
teachers at a later period, as defining the extent of the work 
of atonement ; and it was undoubtedly quoted by Mr. Lincoln 
with that understanding. 

I am not seeking, however, to state definitely the extent to 
which Mr. Lincoln believed the work of atonement; it is 
sufficient to know that with all his heart and soul he believed 
that Christ "tasted death for every man." 

The foregoing statement relating to Lincoln's manuscript 
on Christianity is borne out by a letter of Mr. Menter Graham, 
who was upon the most intimate terms with Mr. Lincoln from 
the time of his coming to Illinois until his departure to Wash- 
ington, as President, in which he thus testifies: "Abraham 
Lincoln was living at my house at New Salem going to school, 
studying English Grammar and surveying in the year 1833. 
One morning he said to me, 'Graham, what do you think about 
the anger of the Lord?' I replied, T believe the Lord was 
never angry or mad and never would be; that His loving 
kindness endureth forever.' Said Lincoln, 'I have a little 



326 LATEST LIGHT ON ABRAHAM LINCOLN 

manuscript written which I will show you,' and stated that he 
thought of having it published. Offering it to me he said he 
had never shown it to any one and still thought of having it 
published. The size of the manuscript was about a half a 
quire of foolscap paper, written in a very plain hand on the 
subject of Christianity. The commencement of it was some- 
thing respecting the God of the Universe never being excited, 
mad or angry. I had the manuscript in my possession some 
week or ten days. I have read many books on the subject of 
theology and I do not think in point of perspicuity and plain- 
ness of reasoning I ever read one to surpass it. I remember 
well his argument. He took the passage, 'As in Adam all 
die, so in Christ shall all be made alive,' and followed up with 
the proposition that whatever the breach or injury of Adam's 
transgression to the human race was, which no doubt was 
very great, was made just and right by the atonement of 
Christ."" 

In 1859, twenty-six years after the writing of that re- 
markable production, being the year following the great Lin- 
coln-Douglas debates, and the year preceding Mr. Lincoln's 
election as President, Mr, Isaac Cogsdale, of Illinois, called 
upon Mr. Lincoln, at his office in Springfield, and frankly 
made inquiry concerning his religious belief. Mr. Lincoln's 
reply was based, as he said at the time, upon his understanding 
of the teachings of the Bible, and among other things, ac- 
cording to Mr. Cogsdale, he said: "All that was lost by the 
transgression of Adam was made good by Atonement. All 
that was lost by the Fall was made good by the Sacrifice; 
and he added this remark, that punishment being a provision 
of the gospel system he was not sure but the world would be 
better if a little more punishment was preached by our minis- 
ters and not so much pardon for sin. Lincoln told me he 
never took part in the argument or discussion of theological 
questions."^ 

■^ Lincoln Scrap-book, p. 64. 
8 Ibid. 



LINCOLN'S RELIGIOUS FAITH 327 

The following story related by Mr, F. B. Carpenter, the 
artist who painted the picture of President Lincoln and his 
Cabinet, considering the Emancipation Proclamation, illus- 
trates the readiness with which Mr. Lincoln summoned Bible 
doctrines to aid him In the performance of official duty, ac- 
cording to the promptings of his loving heart. Mr. Carpenter 
says: 

My friend, the Hon. Mr. Kellogg of New York, was sit- 
ting in his room at his boarding house one evening, when one 
of his constituents appeared — a white-headed old man — who 
had come to Washington in great trouble, to seek the aid of 
his representative in behalf of his son. His story was this: 
"The young man had formerly been very dissipated. During 
an absence from home a year or two previous to the war, he 
enlisted in the regular army, and after serving six months, 
deserted. Returning to his father, who knew nothing of this, 
he reformed his habits, and when the war broke out, entered 
heart and soul into the object of raising a regiment in his 
native county, and was subsequently elected one of its officers. 
He had proved an efficient officer, distinguishing himself par- 
ticularly on one occasion, in a charge across a bridge, when 
he was severely wounded, — his colonel being killed by his side. 
Shortly after this, he came in contact with one of his old com- 
panions in the 'regular' service, who recognized him, and de- 
clared his purpose of informing against him. 

"Overwhelmed with mortification, the young man pro- 
cured a furlough and returned home, revealing the matter to 
his father, and declaring his purpose never to submit to an 
arrest, — *he would die first.' " 

"In broken tones the old man finished his statement, say- 
ing: 'Can you do anything for us. Judge? — it is a hard, hard 
case!' T will see about that,' replied the representative, put- 
ting on his hat; 'wait here until I return.' He went im- 
mediately to the White House, and fortunately finding Mr. 
Lincoln alone, they sat down together, and he repeated the 
old man's story. The President made no demonstration of 



328 LATEST LIGHT ON ABRAHAM LINCOLN 

particular interest until the Judge reached the description of 
the charge across the bridge and the wound received. 'Do 
you say/ he interrupted, 'that the young man was wounded?' 
'Yes,' replied the Congressman, 'badly.' 'Then he had shed 
his blood for his country,' responded Mr. Lincoln, musingly. 
'Kellogg,' he continued, brightening up, 'isn't there something 
in the Scripture about the shedding of blood being the remis- 
sion of sins?' 'Guess you are about right there,' replied the 
Judge. 'It is a good point, and there is no going behind it,' 
rejoined the President ; and taking up his pen, another 'pardon' 
— this time without 'oath,' condition, or reserve — was added 
to the records of the War Office."^ 

Somehow there was a close bond of fellowship between 
Mr. Lincoln and Father Chiniquy, and in a prolonged inter- 
view with that devoted friend, Mr. Lincoln is reported to 
have given utterance to the following sentiments: "Why did 
God Almighty refuse to Moses the favor of crossing the 
Jordan, and entering the Promised Land? It was on account 
of the nation's sins ! That law of divine retribution and jus- 
tice, by which one must suffer for another, is surely a terrible 
mystery. But it is a fact which no man who has any intelli- 
gence and knowledge can deny. Moses, who knew that law, 
though he probably did not understand it better than we 
do, calmly says to his people, 'God was wroth with me for 
your sakes.' 

"But though we do not understand that mysterious and 
terrible law, we find it written in letters of tears and blood 
wherever we go. We do not read a single page of history 
without finding undeniable traces of its existence. 

"Where is the mother who has not shed real tears and suf- 
fered real tortures, for her children's sake? 

"Who is the good king, the worthy emperor, the gifted 
chieftain, who has not suffered unspeakable mental agonies, 
or even death, for his people's sake? 

"Is not our Christian religion the highest expression of 
9 Six Months in the White House, pp. 318-319. 




FATHER CHARLES CHINIQUY 
Greatly beloved by Abraham Lincoln. 



LINCOLN'S RELIGIOUS FAITH 329 

the wisdom, mercy and love of God? But what is Christianity 
if not the very incarnation of that eternal law of divine justice 
in our humanity? 

"When I look on Moses, alone silently dying on the Mount 
of Pisgah, I see that law in one of its most sublime human 
manifestations, and I am filled with admiration and awe. 

"But when I consider that law of justice, and expiation 
in the death of the Just, the divine Son of Mary, on the 
Mount of Calvary, I remain mute in my adoration. The 
spectacle of the Crucified One which is before my eyes is more 
than sublime, it is divine! Moses died for his people's sake, 
but Christ died for the whole world's sake ! Both died to ful- 
fill the same eternal law of the divine justice, though in a 
different measure."" 

Lincoln believed in the doctrine of 

The Holy Spirit 

The most remarkable feature of Mr. Lincoln's religious 
life was his faith in, and constant reliance upon, the Holy 
Spirit. The third person of the Holy Trinity he always and 
properly regarded as the executive of the Godhead. He seems 
to have kept constantly in mind the truth so clearly taught by 
the Scriptures and by the symbols of the Church that "what- 
ever God does He does by the Spirit." All his literary works, 
whether carefully or hurriedly written, as well as his spoken 
words, abound in direct or indirect references to the Holy 
Spirit. They are also dominated by a sense of the Spirit's 
presence and leading. Nothing of value concerning religious 
matters would be left in his literary productions if those por- 
tions relating to the Holy Spirit were removed. His refer- 
ences to God, the Father Almighty, and to Jesus Christ, would 
be utterly without significance apart from his declared or un- 
derstood faith in the Holy Spirit. It is so certain as to be 
universally admitted, that Abraham Lincoln lived and wrought 

10 Fifty Years in the Church of Rome, pp. 706-711. 



330 LATEST LIGHT ON ABRAHAM LINCOLN 

in constant dependence upon God. And equally certain is it 
that all that he hoped to realize from the favor of God, 
whether in the gift of needed wisdom or guidance for which 
he prayed so devoutly, in strength and ability to bear his 
burdens and perform his tasks, or in divine guidance in coun- 
sel and judgment, help in battle upon sea and land, and in all 
upon which he asked or desired the favor of God, his expecta- 
tion was in all cases that the desired favors if granted would 
be ministered by the Holy Spirit. 

Mr. Lincoln's expectations of divine help, through the Holy 
Spirit, were thoroughly scriptural and were sustained by his 
familiarity with the declarations of the Bible. He always sus- 
tained a scriptural attitude when seeking the aid from heaven, 
making his appeal for divine help in a spirit of humility and 
v/ith a sense of utter helplessness. 

The spirit which was dominant in all his life found strik- 
ing expression when, as he left his home city for his great and 
final work he expressed his sense of utter helplessness without 
divine aid. He had a most exalted opinion of the American 
people. He believed in their patriotism, their loyalty to the 
government, their wisdom and their unsurpassed courage; 
and while proposing to make the most of their strength and 
help, his hope of success rested wholly in the favor of God; 
and that divine favor he expected to receive through such 
ministrations of the Holy Spirit as the exigencies of his life 
made necessary. 

"The stars in their courses fought against Sisera" (Judges 
5:20), and Abraham Lincoln who was familiar with this dec- 
laration of Scripture knew that the Almighty was able to 
marshal the forces of the celestial world to aid His own 
people. "And the Lord thundered with a great thunder on 
that day upon the Philistines and discomfited them" (I 
Sam. 7:10), and Abraham Lincoln accepted this as a decla- 
ration of God's purpose to call into activity the elements of 
nature for the accomplishment of "y^is high purposes. He 
believed in the power and purpose of God, by His Holy Spirit, 



LINCOLN'S RELIGIOUS FAITH 331 

to marshal the animate hosts of the heavens, and the inanimate 
forces of nature as He did in ancient times for the defeat of 
those who wickedly fought against His cause and His peo- 
ple. He believed that like power would be brought into activ- 
ity, if necessary, to save the nation from destruction. But 
his chief reliance was upon the helpful influences of the Holy 
Spirit upon the hearts and minds of the children of men. He 
did not expect any interference with the power to originate 
the activities of the human mind, nor with the freedom of 
choice which is a matter of individual consciousness, and 
which also is the ground for personal responsibility. But he 
knew that in the exercise of freedom of thought and of choice 
we are subject to the influences of the Divine Spirit and are 
upheld and sustained by divine power. With unquestioning 
confidence he believed that God's Spirit illuminates the human 
mind and influences for good those who yield to divine leader- 
ship. 

Mr. Lincoln did not look for any miraculous revelation of 
the Divine Will but he did confidently expect that the Holy 
Spirit would help him to perform his allotted task clearly in- 
terpreting the mind of God. Hence, he studied God's Word 
with diligence and listened with constant attention to the voice 
of the Spirit within his heart, that he might be divinely led. 
He believed that wisdom needed for the performance of 
every duty would be administered to him by the direct in- 
fluences of the Holy Spirit ; and so fully were his expectations 
in this regard realized that many of his ofHcial acts which were 
ascribed to his superb genius were by him declared to be sug- 
gested by the Divine Spirit in answer to prayer. 

In a conversation with Dr. Robert Browne, Mr. Lincoln 
made the following extended statements respecting his own 
experiences of the leadings of the Holy Spirit: 

"When I set my mind at work to find some way of evading 
or declining a journey, a speech or service, instead of my own 
spirit a something stronger says, 'You must go. You must not 



332 LATEST LIGHT ON ABRAHAM LINCOLN 

disappoint these people, who have given you their confidence 
as they have no other man.' 

"I am a full believer that God knows what He wants a 
man to do, that which pleases Him. It is never well with the 
man who heeds it not. I talk to God. My mind seems relieved 
when I do, and a way is suggested, that if it is not a super- 
natural one, it is always one that comes at the time, and accords 
with a common-sense view of the work. I take up the common 
one of making a speech somewhere or other. These come al- 
most every day. I get ready for them as occasion seems to re- 
quire. I arrange the facts, make a few notes, some little 
memorandums like those you have seen so often and are so 
familiar with. I take them, and as far as facts are concerned 
confine myself to them, and rarely make any particular prepa- 
ration for feeling, sympathy or purely sentimental thoughts. 

"When my plans for the discussion are made, and the foun- 
dations are laid, I find that I am done and all at sea unless I 
arouse myself to the spirit and merits of my cause. With my 
mind directed to the necessity, I catch the fire of it, the spirit, 
or the inspiration. I see it reflected in the open faces and 
throbbing hearts before me. This impulse comes and goes, 
and again returns and seems to take possession of me. The 
influence, whatever it is, has taken effect. It is contagious; 
the people fall into the stream and follow me in the inspiration, 
or what is beyond my understanding. This seems evidence to 
me, a weak man, that God himself is leading my way."" 

The following from Judge Whitney is striking and in- 
structive: 

"It is due to myself to state that I have not been betrayed 
into a vain laudatory of my subject, because the general con- 
sensus of the world's opinion so directs ; but that, independent 
of all contemporary opinion, as early as 1856, I conceived, and 
did not hesitate to express, the opinion, that Mr. Lincoln was 
a paragon, and prodigy of intellectual and moral force. Others, 
associated with us, deemed him superlatively great, but still 
11 Abraham Lincoln and Men of War Times, Vol. II., pp. 194-195. 



LINCOLN'S RELIGIOUS FAITH 333 

merely human. I went further ; my view was definite and pro- 
nounced, that Lincoln was inspired of God: that he was or- 
dained for a greater than merely human mission; and I used 
to avow this belief as early as that time. 

"Swett said to me at Danville one evening, despairingly 
after Lincoln had made a political speech: 'Of what use is it 
for fellows like Vorhees and me to try to make speeches? 
Whenever I hear Lincoln, I feel as if I never should try to 
make a political speech again.' 

"I tried to comfort him by the reflection that 'the Deity in- 
spired Lincoln, and, of course, he could not hope to match the 
Divine.' 

"I had no idea of Mr. Lincoln's mission; I then thought 
he was the greatest man I ever saw; I now know that God 
worked in him to will and to do, of His own good pleasure. "^^ 

The disclosure by Mr. Lincoln of his dependence upon 
spiritual guidance and inspiration in his preparation and de- 
livery of public speeches, as stated by him in his interview 
with Dr. Robert Browne, explains in part what is spoken of 
as a "miracle" in the following by Bishop McDowell, one of 
the most gifted and eloquent of modern pulpit orators: 

"At Gettysburg, Edward Everett spoke magnificently 
through many thousand noble words — a masterly oration. 
Lincoln spoke three minutes, two hundred and fifty words, and 
this is the principal address of that day or many days. The 
second inaugural is only seven hundred and fifty words in 
length, but while liberty lasts, while charity survives among 
men, while patriotism lives under any flag, these few words 
will be on men's lips like prophecy, psalm or gospel. How did 
this man, born in poverty, reared in poverty, untrained in any 
schools, come to do this miracle? It is not a trick of expres- 
sion, it is the miracle of supreme truth, supremely stated."" 

Mr. Lincoln believed in the Holy Spirit as the One who 
ministers divine aid to individual human beings, and the reali- 

^2 Life on the Circuit with Lincoln, p. 591. 
^3 The Tributes of a Century, p. 369. 



334 LATEST LIGHT ON ABRAHAM LINCOLN 

zation of his need of such ministration caused him to make 
almost countless requests for the prayers of Christian people 
for himself. These requests came welling up from his over- 
burdened heart, and showed that he was reaching out for that 
aid of the Spirit of wisdom and of power which he felt and 
declared was indispensable to the successful accomplishment 
of his divinely appointed work. And when he asked ministers 
of the gospel and other church people to kneel with him in 
prayer, as he often did in the White House, it was a confession 
of his faith in the Holy Spirit as the One by whom all needed 
divine grace is ministered. Such requests for prayer are sig- 
nificant only when they are known to include such an explicit 
or implicit faith. 

To L. E. Chittenden, Register of the Treasury, Mr. Lin- 
coln said: "It makes me stronger and more confident to know 
that all Christians are praying for our success."" 

Mr. Lincoln not only thus freely confessed his realization 
of utter and constant dependence upon God, but he freely be- 
lieved and freely confessed that he was divinely guided and 
aided in his choice of others to the work. His unyielding de- 
mand that Mr. Fessenden should accept the position of Secre- 
tary of the Treasury, at a financial crisis in the nation's his- 
tory, was based upon his claim that he was divinely guided in 
making that appointment. When the distinguished senator 
from Maine emphatically and almost indignantly declared to 
Mr. Lincoln that he could not and would not accept the posi- 
tion, Mr. Lincoln calmly replied: "Last night I saw my way 
clear to appoint you Secretary of the Treasury. I do not think 
you have any right to tell me you will not accept the place. I 
believe that the suppression of the Rebellion has been decreed 
by a Higher Power than any represented by us, and that the 
Almighty is using His means to that end. You are one of 
them. It is as much your duty to accept as it is mine to ap- 
point."" 

^* Recollections of President Lincoln and his Administration, p. 450. 
" Ibid., p. 382. 



LINCOLN'S RELIGIOUS FAITH 335 

So confident was Mr. Lincoln that he had been divinely 
guided in this matter, that he said to Mr. Fessenden: "Your 
nomination is now on the way from the State Department, and 
in a few minutes it will be here. It will be in the Senate at 
noon, you will be immediately and unanimously confirmed, and 
by one o'clock today you must be signing warrants in the 
treasury,"^® 

This entire program which Mr. Lincoln confidently claimed 
was divinely prepared and announced to him was carried out, 
and Mr. Fessenden at once entered upon his serivce as Secre- 
tary of the Treasury, in which his achievements fully justified 
Mr. Lincoln's claim that the statesman from Maine was God's 
choice for that position. 

To Mr. Chittenden President Lincoln afterwards said: "I 
am satisfied that when the Almighty wants me to do or not to 
do a particular thing. He finds a way of letting me know it. 
I am confident that it is His design to restore the nation. He 
will do it in His own good time. We should obey and not 
oppose His way. . . . All we have to do is to trust the 
Almighty and keep right on obeying His orders and executing 
His will."" 

Mr. Lincoln believed that his duty might be made known 
to him through the revelations of the Holy Spirit given to 
others. He was familiar with the Scripture records of many 
such disclosures of the divine will, and therefore he was ever 
alert for some message which might be brought to him from 
some faithful servant of the Most High. He often sought 
counsel of his pastor. Rev. Dr. Gurley, and of other ministers in 
whom he had special confidence. Dr. Gurley was the first 
person whom he consulted respecting the Emancipation Proc- 
lamation, and that famous measure as it went to the public and 
to history, contained important portions suggested by that able 
and wise man of God. During all of his Presidency, it was Mr. 
Lincoln's uniform custom to give careful consideration to the 

1^ Recollections of President Lincoln and his Administration, p. 382. 
" Ibid., pp. 44S-450. 



336 LATEST LIGHT ON ABRAHAM LINCOLN 

advice and counsels of the ministers of the gospel, and to the 
decisions of religious bodies. 

Mr. Lincoln's great interest in the proposition of Colonel 
Jaquess to enter upon and prosecute a peace mission was be- 
cause of his conviction that God might be thus seeking to guide 
and aid him in his difficult work, by the illumination of His 
Holy Spirit upon the heart and mind of one of His chosen mes- 
sengers. 

A full account of the Jaquess Mission is given elsewhere in 
this work, and this reference to that little known but very 
remarkable portion of history is here given to illustrate Mr. 
Lincoln's constant reliance upon the favor of God ministered 
through the influence of the Holy Spirit. 

In Mr. Lincoln's proclamations for days of Thanksgiving, 
humiliation and prayer there are found full and instructive 
declarations of his belief in the influence of the Holy Spirit. 
Whatever in those proclamations the President requested the 
people to ask the Almighty to accomplish could be wrought 
only by the Holy Spirit. We are not, however, left to any 
inference respecting this matter for, as will be seen, Mr. Lin- 
coln designates the Holy Spirit as the One by whom the desired 
results are to be accomplished. 

The dates of those Proclamations and the volumes and 
pages of "Complete Works" where they are published are as 
follows : 

August 12, 1861 Vol. VI., p. 342 

July 16, 1863 Vol. IX., p. 32 

October 3, 1863 Vol. IX., pp. 1 51-153 

July 7, 1864 Vol. X., pp. 149-150 

September 3, 1864 Vol. X., pp. 211-212 

October 20, 1864 Vol. X., p. 245 

The following is a brief summary of the objects for which 
President Lincoln, in his Proclamations, requested the people 
to pray: 



LINCOLN'S RELIGIOUS FAITH 337 

"That we may be spared further punishment. 

That our armies may be blessed and made effectual. 

That law and order and peace may be re-established. 

That prayers may bring down plentiful blessings. 

For pardon of national sins. 

That by the influence of the Holy Spirit the anger of the 
insurgents may be subdued. 

That the hearts of the insurgents may be changed. 

To visit with tender care and consolation those who suffer 
in mind, body or estate. 

To lead the whole nation to union and fraternal peace. 

To protect soldiers and other leaders. 

To comfort the sick, wounded and prisoners. 

To bring blessings for the orphans and widows. 

To uphold the government. 

To heal the wounds of the nation. 

To bring peace, harmony, tranquillity and union. 

To have compassion and grant forgiveness. 

To suppress the rebellion. 

To establish the supremacy of the constitution and laws. 

To protect from foreign hostility and interference. 

To keep us from obstinate adherence to our own counsels. 

To enlighten the mind of the nation to know and to do His 
will. 

To maintain our place as a nation. 

To grant courage, power, resistance and endurance. 

To soften the hearts, enlighten the minds and quicken the 
consciences of those in rebellion. 

To cause the insurgents to lay down their arms and return 
to their allegiance to the United States. 

To stay the effusion of blood. 

To restore fraternity, union, and peace." 

A consideration of these objects for which President Lin- 
coln requested the people to pray will convince any candid 
mind that he was a firm, unquestioning believer in the power 
of prayer, and in the influence of the Holy Spirit upon the 



338 LATEST LIGHT ON ABRAHAM LINCOLN 

hearts and minds of men, and in determining the events of 
life. 

Not less pronounced was Mr. Lincoln's belief in 



Divine Sovereignty 

and in the divine supervision of earthly affairs. Of this 
feature of his faith, Judge Whitney says: "He believed in the 
direct intervention of God in our national affairs, and he 
frequently used to ask Him in a direct manly way to grant 
this boon, avert that disaster, or advise him what to do in a 
given contingency."^® 

In 1842 when Mr. Lincoln was but thirty-three years old 
and unmarried, he addressed a letter to his very intimate friend, 
Joshua F. Speed, in which he expresses his belief in God's 
personal supervision of individual human lives, in language 
which most deeply moves the heart of every sympathetic 
reader. In that letter he declares: "I believe God made me 
one of the instruments of bringing your Fanny and you to- 
gether, which union I have no doubt He had foreordained. 
Whatever He designs He will do for me yet. 'Stand still, 
and see the salvation of the Lord,' is my text just now."^* 

Ten years later, on July i6th, 1852, Mr. Lincoln, in his 
great eulogy upon Henry Clay, said: "Such a man the times 
have demanded, and such in the providence of God was given 
us. But he is gone. Let us strive to deserve, as far as mortals 
may, the continued care of divine providence, trusting that 
in future national emergencies He will not fail to provide us 
the instruments of safety and security."^" 

In 1858 when Mr. Lincoln was engaged in the great strug- 
gle with Stephen A. Douglas many leading republicans 
throughout the nation, and not a few adherents of that party in 
Illinois, were favoring the re-election of Douglas on account 

18 Lincoln, the Citizen, pp. 206-207. 

19 Complete Works of Abraham Lincoln, Vol. L, pp. 218-219. 

20 Ibid., Vol. IL, p. 177. 



LINCOLN'S RELIGIOUS FAITH 339 

of his contest at that time with the Buchanan administration. 
This was very painful to Mr. Lincoln, and in an address de- 
livered at Chicago on July loth, 1858, he referred to this fact 
in the following remarkable language: "As surely as God 
reigns over you, and has inspired your mind, and given you a 
sense of propriety, and continues to give you hope, so surely 
will you still cling to these ideas, and you will at last come 
back after your wanderings, merely to do your work over 
again."" 

In a letter to Mr. H. L. Pierce, April i6th, 1859, Mr. 
Lincoln expresses his belief in the justice of God and the 
righteousness of His administration of human affairs in the 
following expressive utterance: "Those who deny freedom to 
others deserve it not for themselves, and under a just God, 
cannot long retain it."^^ 

In his famous speech at Springfield on "A House Divided 
Against Itself," Mr. Lincoln expressed the conviction that 
slavery would be put "in the way of ultimate extinction" ; and 
as indicating the tenacity with which he clung to the belief 
that however prolonged or furious the struggle, God's sover- 
eign power would without fail bring about its overthrow, later 
in the campaign he made the following remarkable pronounce- 
ment: "I do not suppose that in the most peaceful way ultimate 
extinction would occur in less than a hundred years at least ; 
but that it will occur in the best way for both races, in God's 
own good time, I have no doubt."^^ 

During one of the darkest periods of the rebellion Mr. 
Lincoln thus delivered his soul: "God is leading our Republic 
in His own time and way to its high destiny, and will deal 
with it and fulfill every promise to men if the men of our day 
will but do their duty.'"* 

In an address at a fair held in Baltirpore, in behalf of 

21 Complete Works of Abraham Lincoln, Vol. III., p. 45. 

22 Ibid., Vol. v., p. 126. 

23 Ibid., Vol. IV., p. 189. 

2* Robert Browne, Abraham Lincoln and the Men of his Time, Vol. IL, 

P- 378. 



340 LATEST LIGHT ON ABRAHAM LINCOLN 

the Sanitary Commission, on April i8th, 1864, he said: "So 
true is it that man proposes and God disposes."^^ 

In speaking to Hon. L. E. Chittenden respecting himself as 
divinely called to the work in which he was engaged Mr. Lin- 
coln said: "That the Almighty does make use of human 
agencies, and directly intervenes in human affairs, is one of the 
plainest statements of the Bible. I have had so many evidences 
of this, so many instances of being ordered by some super- 
natural power, that I cannot doubt this power is of God."^° 

On September 13th, 1862, in reply to a committee of minis- 
ters from Chicago, who urged upon him the policy of Emanci- 
pation, he said: "I believe in a divine providence. Unless I 
am more deceived than I often am I wish to know God's will 
in this matter. And if I can learn it I will do it. But I hope 
it will not be irreverent in me to say that if it is probable that 
God would reveal to others His will concerning my duty, it is 
quite as probable that He would reveal it directly to me. These 
are not, however, the days of miracles and I suppose it will be 
granted that I am not to expect a direct revelation. I must 
study the plain facts of the case, ascertain what is possible and 
decide what appears to be wise and right. Whatever shall ap- 
pear to be God's will I will do."" 

On May 30th, 1863, in reply to a committee of the Presby- 
terian General Assembly, Mr. Lincoln said: "From the begin- 
ning I saw that the issue of our great struggle depended on the 
divine interposition and favor. If we had that all would be 
well. In every case and at all hazards the government must 
be perpetuated. Relying, as I do, upon the Almighty Power, 
and encouraged as I am by these resolutions which you have 
just read, with the support which I receive from Christian men, 
I shall not hesitate to use all the means at my control to secure 
the termination of this rebellion and will hope for success."^^ 

25 Complete Works of Abraham Lincoln, Vol. X., p. 77. 
28 Recollections of President Lincoln, p. 450. 

27 Rev. W. W. Patton, D.D., LL.D., President Lincoln and the Chicago 
Memorial, pp. 20-25. 

28 Complete Works of Abraham Lincoln, Vol. VIIL, p. 287. 



LINCOLN'S RELIGIOUS FAITH 341 

In 1862 Mr. Lincoln in reply to an address from the So- 
ciety of Friends delivered to him at the White House by a 
deputation headed by Mrs. Gurney, expressed his confidence in 
God's sovereignty and supervision in the following beautiful 
terms : 

"In the very responsible position in which I happen to be 
placed, being a humble instrument in the hands of our heavenly 
Father, as I am, and as we all are, to work out His great pur- 
poses, I have desired that all my works and acts may be ac- 
cording to His will, and that it might be so, I have sought 
His aid; but if, after endeavoring to do my best in the light 
which He affords me, I find my efforts fail, I must believe that 
for some purpose unknown to me, He wills it otherwise. If 
I had had my way, this war would never have been commenced. 
If I had been allowed my way, this war would have been ended 
before this ; but we find it still continues, and we must believe 
that He permits it for some wise purpose of His own, myste- 
rious and unknown to us ; and though with our limited under- 
standings we may not be able to comprehend it, yet we cannot 
but believe that He who made the world still governs it."^^ 

The confidence with which Mr. Lincoln claimed to be 
divinely chosen and commissioned for his great work is in- 
dicated by the following disclosures made to Father Chiniquy, 
whom he had known for many years, and to whom he un- 
reservedly opened his heart when speaking of religious mat- 
ters: "Let me tell you," he said on one occasion, "that I have 
lately read a passage in the Old Testament which had made a 
profound, and I hope, a salutary impression on me. Here is 
that passage." The President then took his Bible, opened it at 
the third chapter of Deuteronomy, and read from the 22nd to 
the 27th verse: " 'Ye shall not fear them; for the Lord your 
God he shall fight for you. And I besought the Lord at that 
time, saying: O, Lord God, thou hast begun to shew thy ser- 
vant thy greatness, and thy mighty hand: for what God is 
29 Complete Works of Abraham Lincoln, Vol. VIII., pp. 50-51. 



342 LATEST LIGHT ON ABRAHAM LINCOLN 

there in heaven or in earth, that can do according to thy 
works, and according to thy might? 

" T pray thee, let me go over, and see the good land that is 
beyond Jordan, that goodly mountain, and Lebanon. 

" 'But the Lord was wroth with me for your sakes, and 
would not hear me ; let it suffice thee ; speak no more unto me 
of this matter. 

" 'Get thee up into the top of Pisgah, and lift up thine eyes 
westward, and northward, and southward, and eastward, and 
behold it with thine eyes; for thou shalt not go over this 
Jordan.' " 

And after the President had read these words with great 
solemnity, he added: "My dear Father Chiniquy, let me tell 
you that I have read those strange and beautiful words several 
times, these last five or six weeks. The more I read them, the 
more, it seems to me, that God has written them for me as 
well as for Moses. 

"Has He not taken me from my poor log cabin, by the 
hand, as He did of Moses in the reeds of the Nile, to put me at 
the head of the greatest and most blessed of modern nations 
just as He put that prophet at the head of the most blessed 
nation of ancient times? Has not God granted me a privilege, 
which was not granted to any living man, when I broke the 
fetters of 4,000,000 men and made them free? Has not our 
God given me the most glorious victories over my enemies? 
Are not the armies of the Confederacy so reduced to a handful 
of men, when compared to what they were two years ago, 
that the day is fast approaching when they will have to 
surrender?"^" 

In his "Meditation" which has become so famous, and to 
which reference already has been made, Mr. Lincoln remarks: 
"The will of God prevails. In great contests each party claims 
to act in accordance with the will of God. Both may be, and 
one must be, wrong. God cannot be for and against the same 
thing at the same time. In the present civil war it is quite 
^opift}' Years in the Church of Rome, pp. 706-711. 



LINCOLN'S RELIGIOUS FAITH 343 

possible that God's purpose is something different from the 
purpose of either party; and yet the human instrumentaHties, 
working just as they do, are of the best adaptation to effect 
His purposes. 

"I am almost ready to say that this is probably true; that 
God wills this contest, and wills that it shall not end yet."^^ 

The following quotations from letters, official messages, 
and personal interviews, indicate how fully Mr. Lincoln's 
hope of divine interposition and aid was connected with a 
deep sense of human ignorance and helplessness: 

August 15, 1855. "Our political problem now is, 'Can 
we as a nation, continue together permanently, forever, half 
slave and half free?' The problem is too mighty for me — 
may God, in His mercy, superintend the solution."" 

On May 23rd, i860, in his letter of acceptance addressed 
to George Ashmun and the Republican National Convention, 
he writes: "Imploring the assistance of Divine Providence, 
. . . I am most happy to co-operate for the practical success 
of the principles declared by the convention. "^^ 

In a letter to Mr. J. R. Giddings ; dated at Springfield, May 
2 1st, i860, he utters the pious wish: "May the Almighty grant 
that the cause of truth, justice, and humanity shall in no wise 
suffer at my hands. "^* 

His farewell address at Springfield, on February nth, 
1 86 1, contains the following: "I now leave, not knowing when 
or whether ever I may return, with a task before me greater 
than that which rested upon Washington. Without the as- 
sistance of that Divine Being who ever attended him, I cannot 
succeed. With that assistance, I cannot fail."^^ 

From his address to the Ohio Legislature, February 13th, 
1861, I make this pertinent quotation: "I turn then and look 
to the American people, and to that God who has never for- 

^^ Complete Works of Abraham Lincoln, Vol. VIII., pp. 52-53. 

32 Ibid., Vol. II., p. 280. 

33 Ibid., Vol. VI., p. 14. 

34 Ibid., p. 14. 

35 Ibid., pp. iio-lll. 



344 LATEST LIGHT ON ABRAHAM LINCOLN 

saken them. . . . This is a most consoling circumstance, 
and from it we may conclude that all we want is time, patience, 
and a reliance on that God who has never forsaken this 
people."^^ 

And this from his address at Steubenville, Ohio, February 
14th, 1861 : "Encompassed by vast difficulties as I am, nothing 
shall be wanting on my part, if sustained by God and the 
American people."^^ 

To the New York legislature, February i8th, 1861, he said: 
*T still have confidence that the Almighty, the Maker of the 
Universe, will, through the instrumentality of this great and 
inteUigent people, bring us through this as He has through 
all the other difficulties of our country. Relying on this, 
I again thank you for this generous reception."^* 

On February 22nd, 1861, speaking on the occasion of 
raising a flag over Independence Hall, Philadelphia, he said: 
'T wish to call your attention to the fact that, under the bless- 
ing of God, each additional star added to that flag has given 
additional prosperity and happiness to this country."^® 

Responding to a deputation of Evangelical Lutherans, 
May 6th, 1862, he made this deliverance: ''You may recollect 
that in taking up the sword thus forced into our hands, this 
government appealed to the prayers of the pious and the good, 
and declared that it placed its whole dependence upon the 
favor of God. I now humbly and reverently in your presence, 
reiterate the acknowledgment of that dependence, not doubting 
that, if it shall please the Divine Being who determines the 
destinies of nations, this shall remain a united people, and 
that they will, humbly seeking the Divine guidance, make their 
prolonged national existence a source of new benefits to them- 
selves and their successors, and to all classes and conditions of 
mankind.""" 

38 Complete Works of Abraham Lincoln, Ibid., p. 122. 

37 Ibid., p. 123. 

3s Ibid., pp. 141-142. 

39 Ibid., p. 159. 

40 Ibid., Vol. VII., pp. 154-155- 



LINCOLN'S RELIGIOUS FAITH 345 

In his reply to the East Baltimore Methodist Conference, 
May 15th, 1862, he said: "These kind words of approval, com- 
ing from so numerous a body of intelligent Christian people, 
and so free from all sinister motives, are indeed encouraging 
to me. By the help of an All-wise Providence, I shall en- 
deavor to do my duty and I shall expect the continuance of 
your prayers for a right solution of our national difficulties 
and the restoration of our country to peace and prosperity."*^ 

Dr. Miner tells us of a heart-revealing moment when in 
the course of a conversation he asked Mr. Lincoln: "Do you 
think, judging from your standpoint, that we shall be able to 
put down this rebellion," and received the answer: "You know 
I am not of a very hopeful temperament. I can take hold of a 
thing and hold on a good while, but trusting in God for help 
and believing that our cause is just and right, I firmly believe 
that we shall conquer in the end."*" 

As showing how absolute was his dependence upon God we 
quote these words from a letter to Caleb Russell, January 5th, 
1863: "No one is more deeply than myself aware that without 
His favor our highest wisdom is but as foolishness, and that 
our most strenuous efforts would avail nothing in the shadow 
of His displeasure."*^ 

In one of the gloomiest hours of the great struggle he 
said to a delegation of clergymen: "My hope of success in this 
great and terrible struggle rests on that immutable foundation, 
the justness and goodness of God. And when events are very 
threatening, and prospects very dark, I still hope, in some way 
which men cannot see, all will be well in the end, because our 
cause is just and God is on our side."" 

On April 4th, 1864, in a letter to A. E. Hodges and 
Governor Bramlette of Kentucky, referring to a recent inter- 
view, President Lincoln said : "I add a word which was not in 
the verbal conversation. In telling this tale I attempt no 

*i Complete Works of Abraham Lincoln, Vol. VII., pp. 163-164. 
*2 Lincoln Scrap-book, pp. 51-52. 

*3 Complete Works of Abraham Lincoln, Vol. VIII., p. 174. 
** Life on the Circuit with Lincoln, pp. 290-291. 



346 LATEST LIGHT ON ABRAHAM LINCOLN 

compliment to my own sagacity. I claim not to have con- 
trolled events, but confess plainly that events have controlled 
me. Now, at the end of three years' struggle, the nation's 
condition is not what either party or any man desired or ex- 
pected. God alone can claim it. Whither it is tending seems 
plain. If God now wills the removal of a great wrong, and 
wills also that we of the North, as well as you of the South, 
shall pay fairly for our complicity in that wrong, impartial 
history will find therein new causes to attest and revere the 
justice and goodness of God."^^ 

Hon. James F. Wilson, of Iowa, gives an account of an 
interview in the White House at which he was present, in 
which he says: 

"The President did not participate in this conversation. 
He was an attentive listener, but gave no sign of approval or 
disapproval of the views which were expressed. At length one 
of the active participants remarked: 'Slavery must be stricken 
down wherever it exists in this countr}^ It is right that it 
should be. It is a crime against justice and humanity. We 
have tolerated it too long. It brought this war upon us. I 
believe that Providence is not unmindful of the struggle in 
which this nation is engaged. If we do not do right I believe 
God will let us go our own way to our ruin. But if we do 
right, I believe He will lead us safely out of this wilderness, 
crown our arms with victory, and restore our dissevered 
Union.' 

"I observed President Lincoln closely," says Mr. Wilson, 
"while this earnest opinion and expression of religious faith 
was being uttered. I saw that it affected him deeply, and 
anticipated, from the play of his features and the sparkle of 
his eyes, that he would not let the occasion pass without mak- 
ing some definite response to it. I was not mistaken. Mr. 
Lincoln had been sitting in his chair, in a kind of weary and 
despondent attitude while the conversation progressed. At 
the conclusion of the remarks I have quoted, he at once arose 
45 Complete Works of Abraham Lincoln, Vol. X., p. 65. 




HON. JAMES F. WILSON OF IOWA 



LINCOLN'S RELIGIOUS FAITH 347 

and stood at his extreme height. Pausing a moment, his right 
arm outstretched towards the gentleman who had just ceased 
speaking, his face aglow like the face of a prophet, Mr. Lincoln 
gave deliberate and emphatic utterance to the religious faith 
which sustained him in the great trial to which he and the 
country were subjected. He said: 

" 'My faith is greater than yours. I not only believe that 
Providence is not unmindful of the struggle in which this 
nation is engaged ; that if we do not do right God will let us go 
our own way to our ruin ; and that if we do right He will lead 
us safely out of this wilderness, crown our arms with victory, 
and restore our dissevered Union, as you have expressed your 
belief ; but I also believe that He will compel us to do right 
in order that He may do these things, not so much because we 
desire them as that they accord with His plans of dealing with 
this nation, in the midst of which He means to establish 
justice.' 

"The manner of this delivery was most impressive, and as 
Mr. Lincoln resumed his seat he seemed to have recovered 
from the dejection so apparent when we entered the room. 
With a reassured tone and manner, he remarked : 

" The Army of the Potomac is necessary to our success ; 
and though the case at this moment looks dark, I can but hope 
and believe that we will soon have news from it relieving our 
present anxiety. Sometimes it seems necessary that we should 
be confronted with perils which threaten us with disaster in 
order that we may not get puffed up and forget Him who has 
much work for us yet to do. I hope our present case is no 
more than this, and that a bright morning will follow the dark 
hour that now fills us with alarm. Indeed, my faith tells me it 
will be so.' '"' 

This statement of Hon. James F. Wilson in some respects 

is in a class by itself. Of all who have testified concerning 

the declaration of Mr. Lincoln respecting his religious faith 

none stood upon a higher plane than did this distinguished 

^^ Some Memories of Lincoln, North American Review, 1896, p. 667. 



348 LATEST LIGHT ON ABRAHAM LINCOLN 

member of the United States Senate. His rare intellectual 
gifts and attainments placed him at the head of the committee 
on judiciary in the National House of Representatives and 
caused him to be invited by President Grant to accept the 
position of Secretary of State in his Cabinet, which he de- 
clined; and later led the people of Iowa to choose him as one 
of their representatives in the United States Senate. His 
ability, learning and rare poise of character caused him to be 
chosen as one of the managers of the impeachment of Presi- 
dent Andrew Johnson, and also to be assigned to the position 
of railroad commissioner for the United States. His long 
and distinguished public services, together with his known dis- 
cretion in speech and act and his devout faith in God give 
peculiar weight to his testimony respecting the declaration of 
Mr. Lincoln, as published by him in the North American 
Reviezv. 

In this interview President Lincoln went further than in 
any other in declaring his belief in God's purpose concerning 
our nation. Many times he had expressed his conviction that 
"under God" the nation would be granted ultimate victory in 
its great struggle ; but it should not be overlooked, nor lightly 
considered, that in this interview he not only expressed his 
belief that God would bless the nation with victory, but he also 
in clear and unequivocal language stated his conviction that so 
fixed was the divine purpose to save the nation that since such 
salvation could be granted only in case of national obedience, 
the Almighty would apply the rod of chastisement until we as 
a nation were sufficiently humbled to be able to glorify His 
name by the victory it was in His heart and purpose to grant. 
While this conviction is implied in other declarations of Mr. 
Lincoln, in the Wilson interview it is stated so lucidly and 
unequivocally as to admit of no misunderstanding whatso- 
ever. President Lincoln's profound faith in the overruling 
providence of God in all our national affairs should be kept 
constantly in mind while considering the other statement of his 
convictions concerning the rule of God over the affairs of men. 



LINCOLN'S RELIGIOUS FAITH 349 

His belief in the sovereignty of God does not in the least 
conflict with his behef in the free agency of man, as evidenced 
by the following excerpt from his annual message to Congress 
of December ist, 1862, in connection with his plea for the 
adoption of a policy of emancipation: "We shall nobly save 
or meanly lose the last, best hope of earth. Other means may 
succeed ; this could not fail. The way is plain, peaceful, 
generous, just — a way which, if followed, the world will for- 
ever applaud, and God must forever bless. "^^ 

The distinctive features of Mr. Lincoln's religio-political 
faith was his belief in 

Retributive Divine Justice. 

That belief rested upon his firm conviction that right is 
sure to receive divine approval and reward, while wrong is 
not permitted to go unpunished. His belief in personal and 
individual responsibility to God was coupled with his knowl- 
edge that governments are persons with wills, freedom of 
choice and accountability to their divine Author. 

Mr. Lincoln also understood and seems never to have 
doubted nor forgotten that the sins of individual people, when 
authorized, sanctioned or tolerated by government, become 
also national sins and incur national punishment. Hence, 
believing as he did, that slavery was a great wrong he also 
and necessarily believed that the government's complicity in 
that wrong, if continued, would inevitably bring upon the 
nation the severe judgments of the Almighty. And to avert 
that calamity seems to have been the chief purpose of Mr. 
Lincoln's strenuous efforts for the "ultimate extinction" of 
slavery. 

He was greatly disturbed and made "miserable," as he said, 
by witnessing or contemplating the cruelties of slavery and 
the sufferings of the slaves. But he was more than disturbed, 
he was terrified, when, with the foresight of an inspired 

♦'Complete Works of Abraham Lincoln, Vol. VIII., p. 131. 



3-50 LATEST LIGHT ON ABRAHAM LINCOLN 

prophet he saw the day of divine wrath approaching and the 
severe punishment and peril of the nation for its part in that 
great transgression. 

Patriotism was the dominant feature of his philanthropy 
and the perils of the nation disturbed him far more than the 
sufferings of the slaves, though he was keenly sensitive to 
all human afflictions. He was comforted by his belief in 
God's merciful dealings with individual transgressors but his 
soul was in agony when he contemplated the government's 
complicity with slavery and remembered that the punishment 
of nations for their sins is always administered in this life 
and with great severity. Therefore, he could truly say, as 
for the same reason Jefferson said: "I tremble for my country 
when I remember that God is just." And some of Mr. Lin- 
coln's vehement and impassioned utterances respecting the 
nation's expiation of its sinful complicity with slavery caused 
the foregoing declaration of Jefferson to appear very mild and 
moderate. 

On the i6th of September, 1859, — the year following his 
great debates with Douglas and the year preceding his election 
as President, — in a speech at Columbus, Ohio, he said: "There 
was danger to this country, danger of the avenging justice 
of God, in that little unimportant popular sovereignty question 
of Judge Douglas. He supposed there was a question of God's 
eternal justice wrapped up in the enslaving of any race of men, 
or any man, and that those who did so braved the arm of 
Jehovah — that when a nation thus dared the Almighty, every 
friend of that nation had cause to dread His wrath."*^ 

In October, i860, only a few days before his election as 
President, when during the famous "Bateman Interview" he 
learned that of the twenty-three pastors in Springfield, his 
home city, only three were known to be in favor of his election, 
he exclaimed: "It seems as if God had borne with this thing 
(slavery) until the very teachers of religion have come to de- 
fend it from the Bible and to claim for it a divine character 
48 Complete Works of Abraham Lincoln, Vol. V., pp. 159-160. 







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LINCOLN'S RELIGIOUS FAITH 351 

and sanction. And now the cup of iniquity is full and the 
vials of wrath will be poured out." 

During the interview at which Mr. Lincoln made this re- 
markable declaration Dr. Newton Bateman, superintendent of 
the Public Schools of Illinois, and Mr. Lincoln's very close 
personal friend, was his only companion. The national cam- 
paign which resulted in his first election as President was at 
a high point of interest and activity. Elections in the "October 
States" — Ohio, Indiana and Pennsylvania — had been held 
and indicated almost to a certainty that a few days later Mr. 
Lincoln would be triumphantly elected President. It was at 
the end of a very busy day and the last caller had left the 
Capitol building, in which the Presidential candidate occupied 
rooms during the campaign, and in this seclusion these two 
devoted friends engaged in heart to heart consultation con- 
cerning the attitude of their neighbors and especially of the 
ministers and church people toward the Presidential candidates. 
Very carefully and for an extended period they examined the 
pages of the polling list which his supporters had prepared 
and as Mr. Lincoln came to realize that standing for freedom 
as he did he was opposed by "the teachers of righteousness" 
as he designated them, he seems to have had a prophet's vision 
of the approaching judgments of God as he gave vent to the 
agony of his soul in the most startling declarations he had 
ever uttered. 

Dr. Holland in giving an account of this interview tells 
us that Mr. Lincoln's agitation was such as Dr. Bateman had 
never before witnessed in him. He moved about the room 
with rapid, nervous strides, uttering lamentations which 
seemed inadequate to express the depths of his emotions. It 
was not anger but anguish, not pride but pity that burned with 
volcanic violence in his soul in the seclusion of that upper 
chamber in the Capitol at Springfield. The bright star of his 
own personal triumph at the coming election, though rising in 
glorious splendor, was for the time unseen and forgotten as 



352 LATEST LIGHT ON ABRAHAM LINCOLN 

in vision he beheld the storm-cloud of divine wrath filling all 
the heavens. 

"He seemed especially impressed," says Dr. Holland, "with 
the solemn grandeur of portions of Revelation describing the 
wrath of Almighty God, and repeatedly referred to his con- 
viction that the day of wrath was at hand and would issue 
in the overthrow of slavery." Mr. Lincoln's manner and 
declarations upon that occasion filled Dr. Bateman with as- 
tonishment and indicated the violence of the storm that was 
raging in his soul. 

It is not difficult to understand Dr. Bateman's astonishment 
at Mr. Lincoln's manner and statements for upon no other oc- 
casion is he known to have been so tremendously agitated or 
to have given utterance to such alarming apprehensions as 
during that memorable interview. There were other occasions 
upon which he was deeply stirred but never as far as known, 
save at that time, did he manifest his perturbed condition in 
the presence of another person. Once during the debates with 
Douglas he was aroused to the verge of anger but his words, 
though exceedingly forceful, seem to have been chosen with 
care and spoken without bitterness. He was overwhelmed 
with grief when death invaded his family circle in the White 
House but he wept in silence or gave expression to his sorrow 
in words of touching tenderness. He was shocked and be- 
wildered by the disastrous defeat at Chancellorsville, but no 
moan or word of complaint mingled with the sound of his 
footsteps as in the seclusion of his private chamber he marched 
to and fro during all the weary watches of that woeful night. 

Upon all these and similar occasions his self-restraint was 
marvelous, but somehow during the Bateman interview the 
anguish of his soul burst through his habitual restraint and 
found expression in acts and utterances peculiar to that one 
occasion. So appalling was the vision he then beheld that 
his cry of terror rang out upon the night as did the solemn 
warnings of Jeremiah when by inspiration he beheld the 
gathering and approaching storm of retribution which came 



LINCOLN'S RELIGIOUS FAITH 353 

upon ancient Israel. It was the appalling vision of the coming 
judgments of the Almighty which caused Abraham Lincoln, 
upon that occasion, to appear, act and speak as he did at no 
other time. Jeremiah's lamentations were the outpouring of 
his loyal and loving soul when in prophetic vision he saw the 
bitter humiliation and sufferings of the seventy years of 
captivity in Babylon, and like those woeful warnings of "The 
Weeping Prophet" were the utterances of Abraham Lincoln 
when he amazed Dr. Bateman by the vehement declaration of 
his heart-breaking vision of the turpitude of the nation's sins 
and the fearful judgments of God. With the vision of a seer 
he beheld the coming calamity, and with the voice of a 
prophet he uttered his solemn warnings. He was, for a time, 
in the realm of spiritual illumination and his words have all 
the distinctive characteristics of divine inspiration. It was this, 
which at the time, so impressed Dr. Bateman and which ever 
since has given such peculiar significance to the words he ut- 
tered at that time. 

But great as was his agony and pathetic as v/ere his ex- 
clamations when he saw the storm approaching he uttered no 
murmur or cry of pain when his predictions were fulfilled 
and the rod of righteous retribution fell upon the nation. 

We shall not understand Abraham Lincoln, as we should, 
if we fail to note the significant contrast between his agitation 
during the Bateman interview and his humble submission to 
the divine judgments when they came and the heroic fortitude 
with which he endured the severe chastisement of the Almighty 
during all of his Presidential term. His proclamations call- 
ing the people to penitence and prayer are dominated by a 
gentle and submissive spirit. He did not forget nor would he 
permit the people to forget "that by His divine law nations 
like individuals are subjected to punishment and chastisements 
in this world," and "that the awful calamity of civil war which 
now desolates the land may be but a punishment inflicted upon 
us for our presumptuous sins." 



354 LATEST LIGHT ON ABRAHAM LINCOLN 

With the tenderness of a loving father he admonished the 
people "to recognize the hand of God in this terrible visita- 
tion and in sorrowful remembrance of our faults and crimes as 
a nation," "to bow in humble submission to His chastisements, 
to confess and deplore their sins and transgressions," "to 
pray that we may be spared further punishment though most 
justly deserved." The proclamations of President Lincoln 
from which these selections are taken were written by one 
whose soul was saturated with the letter of encouragement and 
counsel which Jeremiah sent to his brethren in captivity ad- 
monishing them cheerfully to submit to the divine judgments, 
fervently to pray for and confidently to expect the promised 
deliverance. Jeremiah said, "For I know the thoughts that I 
have toward you saith the Lord, thoughts of peace and not of 
evil, to give you hope in your latter end." Lincoln asked the 
people to pray "humbly believing that it is in accordance with 
His will that our place should be maintained as a united people 
among the families of nations." 

Jeremiah, speaking for the Almighty, said: "Ye shall call 
upon me, and ye shall go and pray unto me, and I will hearken 
unto you. And ye shall seek me and find me, when ye shall 
search for me with all your heart. "*^ 

Lincoln counselled the people "to rest in the hope author- 
ized by the divine teachings that the united cry of the nation 
will be heard on high and answered" by "the restoration of 
our divided and suffering country to its former happy condi- 
tion of unity and peace." 

The foregoing selections from President Lincoln's procla- 
mations glow with intense religious fervor but there is no 
flame of passion as was sometimes the case when he discussed 
the subject of retributive divine justice in private conversation 
with trusted personal friends. When free from the restraints 
under which important state papers are prepared, Mr. Lincoln, 
in discussing this question assumed a manner and employed 
language which disclosed the great depth of his feelings on the 
4^ Jer. 29 : 12, 13. 



LINCOLN'S RELIGIOUS FAITH 355 

subject, and bore witness to his prolonged meditation upon 
God's dealings with nations in this world for their complicity 
in wrong. 

It would be difficult to find in literature anything more 
pathetic than the following statements of President Lincoln 
in a private conversation with Father Chiniquy during the dark 
days of the war: "My God alone knows what I have already 
suffered for my dear country's sake. But my fear is that the 
justice of God is not yet paid. When I look upon the rivers 
of tears and blood drawn by the lashes of the merciless mas- 
ters from the veins of the very hearts of those millions of de- 
fenseless slaves, these two hundred years; when I remember 
the agonies, the cries, the unspeakable tortures of those people 
to which I have to some extent connived with so many others 
a part of my life, I fear that we are still far from the com- 
plete expiation. For the judgments of God are true and 
righteous. '"° 

In the light of this lava-flow of impassioned utterances 
the greatness of Abraham Lincoln is revealed. The greatness 
of Socrates was revealed by his behavior under suffering, but 
he suffered alone while millions of Lincoln's beloved country- 
men were with him in the furnace of affliction. Socrates was 
great when he calmly drank the poisonous hemlock; Lincoln 
was more than great when, with equal tranquillity, he emptied 
to its dregs the bitter cup of suffering which was pressed to 
his lips and wept in sympathy as he heard the groans of his 
fellow suft'erers and realized that their chastisement was just 
and righteous altogether. 

And in unstudied and forceful language which would not 
have been suitable in an official document Mr. Lincoln in this 
very remarkable private interview disclosed the dominance in 
his thought of God's dealings with nations for their trans- 
gressions. He had given much thought during earlier years 
to the evil character of slavery but at the time of this inter- 
view with Father Chiniquy his mind seems to have dwelt upon 
5° Fifty Years in the Church of Rome, pp. 706-711. 



356 LATEST LIGHT ON ABRAHAM LINCOLN 

the sovereignty of God and His gracious though very severe 
administration of retributive justice. 

The progress of the war and the increase of the sufferings 
and sorrow which it caused were to Mr. Lincoln a constant dis- 
closure of the hand of God in executing the penalty of His 
violated law. Other governmental matters required and re- 
ceived his attention but they could not crowd back from the 
forefront of his thought the retributive judgments of the Al- 
mighty. If any extended declaration of his failed to men- 
tion this matter he seemed to regard it as an omission which 
should be explained or supplied. An illustration of this is 
seen in the famous Bramlette-Dixon interview and letter. 
Early in April, 1864, Governor Bramlette, Senator Dixon and 
Dr. Hodges of Kentucky had an interview with the President 
during which Mr. Lincoln discussed the question of slavery 
with such superb wisdom that he was requested to commit his 
statements to writing which he did in a letter to Dr. Hodges 
dated April 4th, 1864. In that letter Mr. Lincoln, after 
repeating the lucid and comprehensive statement of his attitude 
to slavery, which he had given at the interview a few days 
before, remembering that during that interview he had made 
no reference to the subject of retribution, added the words 
already quoted in this chapter. 

Remembering that the letter to A. G. Hodges was written 
eleven months before Mr. Lincoln delivered his second in- 
augural address, it will be seen how even at that early day his 
mind and soul were being saturated with the subject which 
was the chief theme of that greatest of all literary productions. 
"The rivers of tears and blood" of which he spoke so pathet- 
ically to Father Chiniquy, seem to have haunted his vision un- 
til he saw them swallowed up in the crimson tide which 
"the judgments of the Lord" demanded as an expiation of the 
nation's sins. 

It is fortunate that with Mr. Lincoln's great intellectual 
power there was united a heart of boundless sympathy and 
tenderness, thus giving to his personality a fine sense of 



LINCOLN'S RELIGIOUS FAITH 357 

balance. His legal studies and training led him to recognize 
the immutable law of divine retribution ; but with this feature 
of his faith, there was associated a strong belief in 

Divine Compassion and Mercy 

Mr. Lincoln was always distinguished for rare tenderness 
of heart and sympathy with all who were suffering or in need. 
When but a child it was his custom, if he was not in attendance 
upon public worship on the Lord's day, to gather his playmates 
about him and to discourse to them after the fashion of a 
preacher ; and on such occasions he always admonished them to 
be kind to all their associates and even to dumb animals. The 
characteristics of his nature thus exhibited increased with 
his growth in stature, and in personal character. As early as 
1 85 1, in the familiar letter to his stepbrother relative to his 
father's illness he speaks of the Almighty as "our great and 
good and merciful Maker."^^ 

In his great speech at Springfield, on July 17th, 1858, he 
made a telling point against Judge Douglas, who was seeking 
to win the votes of the antislavery people by saying: "Repent- 
ance before forgiveness is a provision of the Christian system, 
and on that condition alone will the republicans grant him 
forgiveness."^^ 

That conception of the divine compassion and mercy which 
was so dominant in Mr. Lincoln's faith, is stated with great 
clearness and force in portions of his proclamations for a day 
of Thanksgiving. 

In the Proclamation of August 12th, 1861, appointing 
"A Day of Public Prayer, Humiliation and Fasting," he in- 
vites the people "to acknowledge and revere the Supreme 
Government of God ; to bow in humble submission to His chas- 
tisement; to confess and deplore their sins and transgressions 
in the full conviction that the fear of the Lord is the beginning 

51 Complete Works o£ Abraham Lincoln, Vol. II., p. 158. 

52 Ibid., Vol. III., p. 167. 



358 LATEST LIGHT ON ABRAHAM LINCOLN 

of wisdom; and to pray with all fervency and contrition 
for the pardon of their past offenses. In soulful remem- 
brance of our own faults and crimes as a nation and as individ- 
uals, to humble ourselves before Him, and to pray for His 
mercy — to pray that we may be spared further punishment 
though most justly deserved."^' 

On March 30th, 1863, he appointed "A day for national 
prayer and humiliation," calling upon the people "to confess 
their sins and transgressions with humble sorrow, yet with 
assured hope that genuine repentance will lead to mercy and 
pardon. To humble ourselves before the offended Power, to 
confess our national sins, and to pray for clemency and for- 
giveness."^^ 

On October 3rd, 1863, in his proclamation appointing a day 
of Thanksgiving and prayer, in speaking of the great favors 
which had been bestowed upon the nation, he said: "No human 
counsel hath devised, nor hath any mortal hand worked out 
these great things; they are gracious gifts of the most High 
God, who, while dealing with us in anger for our sins hath 
nevertheless remembered mercy."^^ 

On October 20th, 1864, in the last Proclamation which he 
issued appointing a day of annual Thanksgiving he admon- 
ishes the people "that on that occasion they do reverently hum- 
ble themselves in the dust, and from thence offer up penitent 
and fervent prayers."^® 

Mr. Lincoln's regard for 

The Christian Sabbath 

is sufficiently expressed in the following order: "Order 
for Sabbath Observance, Executive Mansion, Washington, 
Nov. 15th, 1862. 

"The President, Commander-in-Chief of the army and 

B3 Complete Works of Abraham Lincoln, Vol. VI., pp. 341-343- 

54 Ibid., Vol. VIII., pp. 235-237. 

55 Ibid., Vol. IX., p. 152. 

56 Ibid., Vol. X., p. 246. 



LINCOLN'S RELIGIOUS FAITH 359 

navy, desires and enjoins the orderly observance of the Sabbath 
by the officers and men in the miHtary and naval service. The 
importance for man and beast of the prescribed weekly rest, 
the sacred rights of Christian soldiers, and sailors, a becom- 
ing deference to the best sentiment of a Christian people, and 
a due regard for the Divine Will, demand that Sunday labor 
in the army and navy be reduced to the measure of strict 
necessity. The discipline and character of the national forces 
should not suffer, nor the cause they defend be imperilled, by 
the profanation of the day or name of the Most High. 'At 
this time of public distress,' adopting the words of Washing- 
ton in 1776, 'men may find enough to do in the service of 
God and their country without abandoning themselves to vice 
and immorality.' The first general order issued by the Father 
of his country after the Declaration of Independence indicates 
the spirit in which our institutions were founded and should 
ever be defended. The General hopes and trusts that every 
officer and man will endeavor to live and act as becomes a 
Christian soldier, defending the dearest rights and liberties of 
his country.' "" 

The Church 

Nothing was more manifest in Mr. Lincoln's life and in 
his teachings than his firm and constant belief in the Church 
as a divine institution. In early life his lot was cast with 
the Methodists and Baptists, but during his life in Springfield 
and at Washington, his personal denominational preferences 
were with the Presbyterians. He was a regular and interested 
worshipper in that denomination both at his home city and at 
the National Capital. He was also strongly attached to the 
Methodist Episcopal Church because of its spirituality, its 
cordial fellowship, its great numerical strength and its con- 
sequent large contribution to the needs of the government 
during all the years of his Presidency. This is felicitously 
expressed in the following reply to a Methodist delegation, 

57 Complete Works of Abraham Lincoln^ Vol. VIII., pp. 76-77- 



36o LATEST LIGHT ON ABRAHAM LINCOLN 

May 14th, 1864: "It is no fault in others that the Methodist 
Church sends more soldiers to the field, more nurses to the 
hospitals, and more prayers to heaven than any. God bless the 
Methodist Church. Bless all the churches, and blessed be 
God, who, in this our great trial, giveth us the churches."^^ 

Mr. Lincoln's views respecting the justification for the 
existence of so many religious denominations is expressed in 
the following portions of his statements on that subject to a 
company of friends and reported by Dr. Robert Browne, as 
follows : 

"In one of his cheeriest moods, one day, I remember, the 
subject of the many Protestant sects was being considered and 
talked over. One good old brother, a kind-hearted man, and as 
timid, lamented the number of sects, and hoped that some day 
a harmonizing spirit would prevail among all Christian be- 
lievers, and that all of them would unite in one Church organi- 
zation to serve the Master. Mr. Lincoln said: "My good 
brother, you are all wrong. The more sects we have, the bet- 
ter. They are all getting somebody in that the others could 
not; and even with the numerous divisions we are all doing 
tolerably well. 

"It is not a certainty by any means that a quiet time is 
the best for progress. It is not so by any means in the 
progress of human liberty or the release of men from supersti- 
tion and persecution under the forms of religion. The great- 
est achievements have always come in stirring, fighting times, 
like those of Luther, Cromwell, and the American revolution. 
What we need is not fewer sects or parties, but more freedom 
and independence for those we have. The sects are all right 
and will get through all right in the end. God is going to be 
more merciful to men trying to do right than most people 
think. He is so much more familiar with human frailties 
than a little sect in any single organization can be, that there 
is scarcely room for doubt that He will deal more gently with 
blundering, sinning humanity than the sects would deal with 
58 Complete Works of Abraham Lincoln, Vol. X., p. 100. 



LINCOLN'S RELIGIOUS FAITH 361 

one another. I would rather there were more than less, if one 
were to hold all the power. 

"Yet sects are right, and should hammer away until they 
reach the best that is attainable. God intends that men should 
fight their way to better conditions, and not be lazy or timid, 
or expect that their passage would be an easy one through the 
world or beyond in ignorant idleness. We are often con- 
fronted with the fear of too many sects, as so many timid 
people among them so often dread, and wonder which is 
right and which is best among them. They are all right. 

"Think of the sect drilling so many of us have passed 
through, mostly to our advantage, as responsible beings. Our 
people came from the good old Quaker stock, through Pennsyl- 
vania, Virginia, and Kentucky. Circumstances took us into 
the Baptist sect in Indiana, in which several of our people 
have remained. While there, a good Methodist elder rode 
forty miles through a winter storm out of his way to preach 
my mother's funeral sermon at Spencer Creek. Here in 
Illinois v/e are with the Presbyterians, where the Methodists 
are as thick as bees all about us."^® 

Mr. Lincoln believed in 

Salvation by Faith in Christ 

This was indicated by many and very significant references 
to the Saviour, and the marked reverence and affection with 
which that name was always spoken by him. In earlier days he 
had been closely associated with Major Merwin in the tem- 
perance work in Illinois and always manifested deep sympathy 
with and interest in the gospel features of that work. Because 
of that interest he afterwards afforded Major Merwin every 
desirable opportunity to visit the front during the war to in- 
duce soldiers to abstain from intoxicants and to become Chris- 
tians. 

In the case of Colonel Loomis, elsewhere referred to, Mr. 

5» Abraham Lincoln and the Men of his Time, Vol. II., pp. 427-428. 



362 LATEST LIGHT ON ABRAHAM LINCOLN 

Lincoln was disinclined to retain him in the position which he 
held until he learned of the religious work he always had con- 
ducted among the men under his command ; when he remarked 
that this was "his highest possible recommendation." 

According to the statement of Mrs. Rebecca Pomeroy, who 
was for fourteen weeks a nurse in the White House, the Presi- 
dent frequently accompanied her upon her visitations to the 
hospitals, and would never permit her to pass over the religious 
exercises which formed part of her work, but always listened 
with close and constant attention while she pointed afflicted 
and suffering soldiers to Jesus Christ as the only one in whom 
they could find salvation, and from whom there could be ad- 
ministered to them consolation and comfort. 

Mrs. Pomeroy in her very interesting and instructive 
record of the events of those weeks says that Mr. Lincoln, in a 
conversation with her at the White House, inquired with great 
diligence and minuteness concerning her methods of communi- 
cating to the soldiers the gospel message, and the evidence of 
their acceptance of the Saviour. 

Mr. Lincoln accepted without qualification the doctrine of 

Personal Regeneration. 

The work of grace to which the Saviour referred when he 
said, "Ye must be born anew" (John 3:7), to which the 
Apostle referred when he said, "If any man is in Christ he is 
a new creature" (2 Cor. 5:17), that work which Mr. Lincoln 
designated as "a change of heart," was to his mind clearly 
taught by reason and Revelation. All that Mr, Lincoln is 
known to have said respecting his own religious experiences 
and standing bears witness to his settled conviction that per- 
sonal regeneration is included in the work of saving grace and 
is indispensable to salvation. His carefully guarded expres- 
sions of uncertainty as to "the precise time" when he was the 
recipient of that gracious work of the Holy Spirit, and ex- 
perienced "a change of heart," as he termed it, and his later 



LINCOLN'S RELIGIOUS FAITH 363 

more definite declarations relative to the same matter give 
assurance of his recognition of the necessity for such an ex- 
perience. His occasional reference to this matter indicates 
that he supposed his belief in the doctrine of regeneration was 
understood as a matter of course. This is confirmed by his 
statements which appear in later pages of this volume. 



IV 

LINCOLN'S FAITH IN PRAYER 

IN his statement before quoted Mr. Roosevelt employs a 
very unusual word when he says, "Lincoln studied the 
Bible until he mastered it absolutely." It is not often 
that any one is credited with having "mastered" a great liter- 
ary production, yet in a carefully prepared address upon an 
important occasion, when as chief magistrate of the nation he 
occupied a position which caused his words to have peculiar 
weight, Mr. Roosevelt declared that Lincoln had "mastered 
absolutely" the greatest book in existence. 

Mr. Lincoln's methods of study were calculated to ac- 
complish the result here claimed for him by the former Presi- 
dent. He was always thorough in his examination of every 
subject that he deemed worthy of consideration. He care- 
fully read, diligently studied and pondered over volumes which 
others hastily perused. Thus he became able to repeat verbatim 
extended passages from books and other publications upon 
which he had bestowed absorbing attention. By the same 
painstaking methods he studied the Bible and by so doing he 
came into that sublime and beautiful faith in prayer which for 
more than half a century has been the marvel of the world. 

When Mr. Lincoln discovered a very skillfully constructed 
plot to secure by perjury a verdict against his client in the 
case he was conducting for Father Chiniquy, he said: "The 
only way to be sure of a favorable verdict tomorrow is that God 
Almighty will take our part and show your innocence. Go to 
Him and pray for He alone can save you." At three o'clock, 
the next morning, Mr. Lincoln came to Father Chiniquy's 
room, and finding him in agonizing and tearful prayer, merrily 
exclaimed: "Cheer up, their diabolical plot is all known and if 

364 



LINCOLN'S FAITH IN PRAYER 365 

they do not fly away before the dawn of day they will surely 
be lynched. Bless the Lord, you are saved." 

A little later, while in conversation with Father Chiniquy, 
he said: "The way you have been saved when, I confess it 
again, I thought everything was nearly lost, is one of the most 
extraordinary occurrences I ever saw. It makes me remember 
what I have too often forgotten and what my mother often 
told me when young — that our God is a prayer-hearing God. 
This good thought sown into my young heart by that dear 
mother's hand was in my mind when I told you to go and pray. 
But I confess to you that I had not faith enough to believe that 
your prayer would be so quickly and so marvelously 
answered."^ 

He Asked for Prayers 

A sincere, earnest request to be remembered and mentioned 
in the prayers which others offer should be regarded as quite 
as pronounced an expression of faith in the efficacy of prayer 
as could be stated in human language. With some it means 
but little to make a request for prayer, but such was not the 
case with Abraham Lincoln. He was a man of such propor- 
tions, so broad and generous in his human sympathies, so pro- 
found and earnest in his regard for sacred things, and so 
absolutely sincere, that for him to express a desire to be 
remembered in the prayers of others, meant all that was in 
his power to express. The record of his eventful life is 
marked by many such requests. Some of these will be stated 
in this connection, and I must begin by asking the reader to 
.stand with me, in imagination, in the dampness and falling 
snow of that nth of February, 1861, when Mr. Lincoln bade 
adieu to his friends and neighbors as he started on his journey 
to Washington for his inauguration as President, and hear 
him say: "To His care commending you, as I trust in your 
prayers you will commend me, I bid you an affectionate fare- 
well." 

1 Fifty Years in the Church of Rome, pp. 657, 658, 662. 



366 LATEST LIGHT ON ABRAHAM LINCOLN 

Mr. Lincoln had just been speaking of the assurance of 
God's presence and of His all-sufficient helpfulness given to 
Washington and those associated with him; and realizing, as 
he did, and as he most beautifully stated, his own utter un- 
fitness for the great task before him he turned with all the 
simplicity and solemn earnestness of a devout and spiritually 
enlightened soul to the one only source of help in times of 
need. His whole confidence was in God and with all his 
heart and soul he believed in the efficacy of prayer in securing 
divine assistance. He believed in his neighbors and friends 
who stood before him and in the potency of their prayers. 
His heart yearned to be remembered by them when they were 
interceding with God for the imperilled nation. But let us 
not forget that while his heart was yearning for remembrance 
in their prayers, he did not, and could not forget that they, 
too, were in need of the presence and blessing of Omnipotence. 
And this doubtless brought him unconsciously to an expression 
of his belief in what is known as "communion in intercession." 

"There is a place where spirits blend, 
Where friend holds fellowship with friend, 
Though sundered far, by faith they meet, 
Around one common Mercy-seat." 

When interceding for a common cause we have fellowship 
in prayer sweet, and comforting. But it was something more 
personal, more inexpressibly precious, that Mr. Lincoln had in 
mind. What was in his thought is often expressed in devo- 
tional conferences and testimonies. No doubt Mr. Lincoln, on 
many occasions, at social religious services which he fre- 
quently attended, had heard the request and promise: "I hope 
to be remembered in your prayers and I will not forget you 
when I pray." The thought expressed in that very common 
statement was the thought which Mr. Lincoln clothed in such 
incomparably beautiful language, in the closing passage of 
that farewell address. 



LINCOLN'S FAITH IN PRAYER 367 

To doubt that his soul was full to overflowing of the 
sacred sentiments which those words expressed; to doubt his 
belief that in answer to the prayers of the people from whom 
he was taking his final leave much good could and would 
come to him which otherwise might not be received ; to doubt 
his own firm faith that God would, in answer to his own 
prayers, minister good to those from whom he was about to be 
separated, is to dishonor the name of Abraham Lincoln and to 
commit an unspeakable offense against the sacred truth of 
which he was a living personification. 

If nothing else than this beautiful and gracious request 
had ever been spoken or written by Abraham Lincoln respect- 
ing the subject of prayer, humanity would stand uncovered in 
his presence, overawed by his sublime and abiding faith in God 
and in scriptural intercession. With bated breath an anxious 
world listened to those words, moved as it at no other time 
had been with the realization that God's chosen man was re- 
sponding to the divine call and going forth to tasks as great 
as any which in the past had engaged the efforts of others, 
and more difficult than any which the foremost of his con- 
temporaries could perform. And in harmony with this avowal 
of his own longing for the fellowship of intercession, and his 
confidence in prayer, there came from his lips and pen, as 
the years went by, and difficulties accumulated, and darkness 
gathered, expressions of a faith that never faltered through 
all the years of his earthly life. 

To the multitudes that came to meet him as he passed 
through the great centers on his journey to the Capital, he 
spoke in terms and tones befitting such a chieftain at such a 
crisis, and at every point he turned the thought of those who 
heard him to the ability of God to save the nation, and to 
His willingness to do so in answer to the supplications of the 
people. 

As Mr. Lincoln stood erect and hopeful, although in the 
agony of ever-darkening apprehensions, he directed the thought 
of the American people to the importance of seeking and 



368 LATEST LIGHT ON ABRAHAM LINCOLN 

striving to merit and secure the gracious favor of Almighty 
God as in the following impressive words of his first official 
declaration: "Intelligence, patriotism, Christianity and a firm 
reliance on Him who has never yet forsaken this favored 
land are still competent to adjust, in the best way, all our 
present needs." 

During the months and years that followed, the President's 
calls of the nation to their knees in prayer were frequent 
and urgent. In many ways he expressed his desire to be 
remembered in the prayers of praying people. To Hon. L. E. 
Chittenden, one of his trusted counsellors, he said: "It makes 
me stronger and more confident to know that all Christians 
in the loyal states are praying for our success, that all their in- 
fluences are working to the same end. Thousands of them are 
fighting for us, and no one will say that an officer or a private 
is less brave because he is a praying soldier." 

Dr. William H. Roberts states that during eighteen 
months while a soldier in the Union Army and stationed at 
Washington, he often saw President Lincoln at the prayer 
meeting of the New York Avenue Presbyterian Church, some- 
times in the lecture room, and at other times in the pastor's 
study to avoid having his hour of prayer interrupted by per- 
sons seeking governmental favor. 

A clergyman from New York during a call at the White 
House said: "I have not come to ask any favors of you, Mr. 
President, I have only come to say that the loyal people of 
the North are sustaining you and will continue to do so. We 
are giving you all that we have, — the lives of our sons as well 
as our confidence and our prayers. You must know that no 
pious father or mother ever kneels in prayer these days with- 
out asking God to give you strength and wisdom. 

"The tears filled Lincoln's eyes as he thanked his visitor 
and said: 'But for those prayers I should have faltered and 
perhaps failed long ago. Tell every father and mother you 
know to keep on praying and I will keep on fighting, for I 
know that God is on our side.' 



LINCOLN'S FAITH IN PRAYER 369, 

*'As the clergyman started to leave the room, Lincoln 
held him by the hand and said: 'I suppose I may consider this 
a sort of pastoral call.' 

" 'Yes,' replied the clergyman. 

" *Out in our country,' continued Lincoln, 'when a parson 
makes a pastoral call it was always the custom for the folks 
to ask him to lead in prayer, and I should like to ask you to 
pray with me today ; pray that I may have strength and wis- 
dom/ The two men knelt side by side before a settee and 
the clergyman offered the most fervent appeal to the Almighty 
Power that ever fell from his lips. As they arose, Lincoln 
grasped his visitor's hand and remarked in a satisfied sort 
of way, — 

" 'I feel better.' "'^ 

No father will fail to feel strong heart throbs of tender 
S}Tnpathy as he peruses the following statement by Mrs. 
Pomeroy, the army nurse who ministered to the Lincoln family 
at the time of Willie's death: "The third day, and the sick 
one's better, he had to go into his office, for he had not been 
there for several days. Looking on the Httle sufferer he said: 
*I hope you will pray for him and if it is God's will, that he 
may be spared. And also pray for me, for I need the prayers 
of many.' The fourth day and the sad duty done, that of 
laying his dear son 'Willie' out of sight, my heart prompted 
me to say, 'Look up for strength,' and he kindly answered, 'I 
will go to God with my sorrows.' "^ 

Never in personal conversation did Abraham Lincoln rise 
to a higher level than when he thus humbled himself before his 
God and became, for the time, naught else but a sinful mortal 
in need of human intercession and divine grace. It was no 
hard task requiring special effort for the President to issue 
a proclamation asking the people to unite in prayer for the 
nation, for the army, and for the government; but to say, 
"Pray for me," was a heroic act which few men in like position 

2 The True Abraham Lincoln, pp. 383-384. 
' Lincoln Scrap-book, p. 54. 



3/0 LATEST LIGHT ON ABRAHAM LINCOLN 

ever have achieved. How closely this request of Mr. Lincoln 
resembles that of the great Apostle in his letter to the Ephe- 
sians, when he says: "Praying always with all prayer and 
supplication in the Spirit . . . for all saints and for me 
also" (Eph. 6: 18-19) ; just as his request for the prayers of 
his neighbors in his farewell address at Springfield resembles 
the words of Paul to the Church at Rome, "Strive together 
with me in your prayers to God for me."* 

Respecting Mr. Lincoln's faith in prayer, and his interest 
in a personal religious experience, Mrs. Pomeroy, through 
William M. Thayer, places the world under obligations by the 
following statements: 

"He inquired very minutely into the method of speaking 
with sick and dying soldiers — what she said to them — how 
they answered her — how many of them became Christians? 
He accompanied her many times to the hospital and witnessed 
her effective management and talked with the soldiers and en- 
couraged them. On learning that the managers of the hospital, 
who were Roman Catholics, had forbidden the Protestant 
nurses to pray with the soldiers, or read the Bible to them, 
he promptly removed the restriction, and allowed Christian 
women henceforth to hold prayer meetings, read the Bible to 
the 'boys' and pray with them, as much as they pleased, add- 
ing: Tf there was more praying and less swearing it would be 
far better for our country, and we all need to be prayed for, 
officers as well as privates, and if I was near death I think I 
should hke to hear prayer.' "^ 



Many Prayed for Him 

Next to his own pastor, the Rev. N. W. Miner, D.D., 
pastor of the First Baptist Church, Springfield, Illinois, may 
be regarded as having been Mr. Lincoln's most highly es- 
teemed friend and counsellor in religious matters. Their re- 

* Romans 15 : 30. 

5 William M. Thayer, From Pioneer to White House, p. 353. 



LINCOLN'S FAITH IN PRAYER 371 

lation of personal friendship extended over a period of many 
years and any word of information from Dr. Miner respect- 
ing Mr. Lincoln is of special value. There is, therefore, pe- 
culiar interest in the following: 

"In the early part of the winter of 1861, a meeting was 
held in the First Presbyterian Church of Springfield, and was 
largely attended by the most respectable and best people of 
the city. Many fervent prayers were offered for our beloved 
country, and for the man whom Providence had raised up to 
guide the ship of state over a rough and stormy sea. Mr. 
Lincoln listened attentively to the earnest prayers which were 
made with thrilling interest. At the close of the meeting I 
passed down the aisle in which he was standing and taking 
me by the hand he said, with deep emotion: 'Mr. Miner, this 
has been a good meeting. I hardly know how it could have 
been made better. I feel very grateful for the prayers offered 
in my behalf and hope they may be answered.' "^ 

Mr. Lincoln's expression of appreciation of the services 
above mentioned is an unqualified declaration of his interest 
in the prayer service of the church. 

In the following Dr. Miner tells of another conversation 
with Mr. Lincoln, at the White House: 

"During my visit I said to him: 'Well, Mr. Lincoln, you 
have this encouragement. Christian people all over the coun- 
try are praying for you as they never prayed for mortal man 
before.' 

" T believe that,' he said, 'and this is an encouraging 
thought to me. If I were not sustained by the prayers of 
God's people I could not endure the constant pressure. I 
should give up hoping for success.' "^ 

The following is of rare value because it contains a very 
significant statement of Mr. Lincoln's estimate of secret prayer, 
and also because it comes from one of his most esteemed and 
cherished friends: 

"When reminded that he was daily remembered by those 
^Lincoln Scrap-book, pp. 51-52. '^ Ibid. 



372 LATEST LIGHT ON ABRAHAM LINCOLN 

who prayed 'not to be heard of men,' as no man ever had 
before been remembered, he caught at the homely phrase and 
said, 'Yes, I hke that phrase "not to be heard of men," and 
guess it is generally true as you say. At least I have been told 
so and I have been a great deal helped by just that thought.' "^ 

To the same effect is the following: 

"Prayer can do what armies cannot," suggested Mrs. Porn- 
eroy ; "and never were so many prayers offered for a country 
as are offered for ours, and never so many offered for a ruler 
as are offered for you, Mr, President." 

"I know it," answered Mr. Lincoln, deeply moved by the 
thought; "and it is great encouragement to me. Our cause is 
righteous, and I do believe that God will give us the victory; 
but this slaughtering of men is dreadful for both sides. "^ 

On the morning of Willie's funeral, Mrs. Pomeroy ex- 
pressed her deep sympathy for him, and called his attention to 
the many prayers going up for him, "I am glad to hear that," 
he answered wiping away his tears ; "I w^ant they should pray 
for me. I need their prayers. I will try to go to God with my 
sorrows."" 

It would be impossible to exaggerate the significance in 
this connection of the following charming incident: 

"The last week in January, 1864, the Sanitary Commission 
held a four days' session in Washington, at the conclusion of 
which between forty and fifty of the ladies went in a body to 
call upon the President. As related by one of the ladies pres- 
ent, he took each by the hand in the usual perfunctory manner, 
until it became the turn of a little Quaker lady from Phila- 
delphia. 

"She had to rise on tiptoe to reach his hand. As she did 
so her voice uttered some words I did not catch but their 
effect I saw. 

"As when lights suddenly blaze behind a cathedral's win- 

8 Noah Brooks, in Harper's Magazine for July, 1865, p. 226. 
8 From Pioneer Home to White House, pp. 349-350. 
i°Ibid., p. 351. 



LINCOLN'S FAITH IN PRAYER 373 

dows, flashing beauty where was but formless dullness, so the 
soul of light illuminated these rugged features and poured 
from the wonderful eyes. The gaunt and bent form straight- 
ened, even the angles seemed to fill out and cause the figure to 
assume the proportions which nature had intended. The 
mouth became even beautiful in its sweetness. As the trans- 
figured face bent above the upturned bonnet of the little 
Quaker lady, whose features it hid from us, a stream of 
blessing seemed to flow from his face to hers. 

"While he still held her hand she said to him : 'Yes, Friend 
Abraham, thee need not think thee stands alone. We are all 
praying for thee. All our hearts, the hearts of all the people 
are behind thee, and thee cannot fail. The Lord has appointed 
thee, the Lord will sustain thee, and the people love thee. Yea, 
as no other man was ever loved before does this people love 
thee. We are only a few weak women, but we represent many. 
Take comfort, Friend Abraham, God is with thee. The peo- 
ple are behind thee.' 

" T know it,' replied Mr. Lincoln, the great soft voice roll- 
ing solemnly and sweetly forth from the trembling lips; *I 
know it. If I did not have that knowledge, it is not hope, it 
is knowledge, the knowledge that God is sustaining and will 
sustain me until my appointed work is done, I could not live. 
If I did not believe that the hearts of loyal people were with 
me, I could not endure it. My heart would have broken long 
ago. It is that blessed knowledge and that blessed relief that 
holds me to my work. This has been a sad day, and I was al- 
most overwhelmed when you came in. You have given a cup 
of cold water to a very thirsty and grateful man. Ladies, you 
have done me a great kindness today. I knew it before. I 
knew that good men and women were praying for me, but I 
was so tired I had almost forgotten. God bless you all.' "" 

11 Helen Everston Smith, one of the commissioners, in The Independent, 
1900, pp. 435-436. 



374 LATEST LIGHT ON ABRAHAM LINCOLN 

Prayer with Him 

It is difficult to believe that at a time when the nation's 
life was in such great peril, leading men at Washington, and 
in other parts of the country were engaged in a conspiracy 
to give aid and comfort to those who were in rebelHon and to 
make more difficult the efforts which were being made to pre- 
serve the Union. 

But such was the case as all know who are at all familiar 
with the history of those times. At one of the meetings held 
by the leaders of that disloyal movement, as was usual at such 
gatherings, Mr. Lincoln was denounced with great vehemence 
and malignity. After listening to those denunciations for a 
time one of their number arose and said: 

"I was up at the White House, having called to see the 
President on business. I was shown into the office of his 
private secretary, and told that Mr. Lincoln was busy just then, 
but would be disengaged in a short time. While waiting I 
heard a very earnest prayer being uttered in a loud female 
voice in the adjoining room. I inquired what it meant, and 
was told that an old Quaker lady, a friend of the President's, 
had called that afternoon and taken tea at the White House, 
and that she was then praying with Mr. Lincoln. After the 
lapse of a few minutes the prayer ceased, and the President 
accompanied by a Quakeress not less than eighty years old, 
entered the room where I was sitting. I made up my mind 
then, gentlemen, that Mr. Lincoln v/as not a bad man ; and I 
don't think it will be easy to efface the impression that the scene 
I witnessed and the voice I heard made on my mind." " 

Father Charles Chiniquy, at the close of his account of 
an interview with the President, says: 

"Never had I heard such sublime words, never had I seen 
a human face so solemn and so prophet-like as the face of the 
President when uttering these things. Every sentence had 
come to me as a hymn from heaven, reverberated by the echoes 

" F. B. Carpenter, Six Months in the White House, p. igi. 



LINCOLN'S FAITH IN PRAYER 375 

of the mountains of Pisgah and Calvary. I was beside my- 
self. Bathed in tears, I tried to say something, but I could 
not utter a word. I knew the hour to leave had come. I asked 
from the President permission to fall on my knees and pray 
with him that his life might be spared; and he knelt with me. 
But I prayed more with my tears and sobs than with my words. 
Then I pressed his hand on my lips and bathed it with tears, 
and with a heart filled with unspeakable desolation I bade him 
adieu. It was for the last time, for the hour was fast ap- 
proaching when he was to fall by the hand of an assassin, for 
his nation's sake,"" 

The following is descriptive of a scene in the White House 
during a visit of some leaders of the Friends' Church: 

"The good man rested his head upon his hands and under a 
precious gathering influence I knelt in solemn prayer. He 
knelt close beside me and I felt that his heart went with every 
word as utterance was given. I afterwards addressed him and 
when we rose to go he shook my hand heartily and thanked me 
for the visit."^^ 

Brigadier General James F. Rusling, in his charming book, 
"Men and Things I Saw in Civil War Days," p. 417, places us 
all under obligations by the following: 

"Bishop Edmund Janes testified that: 'Many times during 
the war, when I visited Lincoln in his private office in Wash- 
ington, he said: "Do not go. Bishop, until you have prayed 
with me. We need your prayers and the divine direction in 
these critical hours," and so time after time I knelt by Mr. 
Lincoln in the White House when we two were alone, and 
carried the cause of the Union and the needs of the President's 
anxious heart and of our distracted country to the Lord in 
prayer.' " 

Similar to the event mentioned by General Rusling is the 
following by Rev. Edgar Dewitt Jones, in the Homiletic Re- 
view, for 1909, p. 156: "To Bishop Simpson, who called once 

^■* Fifty Years in the Church of Rome, pp. 706-711. 
15 Friends' Review, Lincoln Scrap-book, p. 51. 



3/6 LATEST LIGHT ON ABRAHAM LINCOLN 

when the clouds were thickest Lincoln said: 'Bishop, I feel 
the need of prayer as never before. Please pray for me,' and 
the two men then fell on their knees in prayer to God for 
strength and guidance." 

A Praying President 

The strongest evidence of Mr. Lincoln's faith in the ef- 
ficacy of prayer was his own devout prayerfulness. 

Of the twenty-six men who, by election or succession, 
have occupied the position of President of the United States, 
Abraham Lincoln is the only one who could fittingly be 
designated, "The Praying President." Some were earnest 
Christians, others held official positions in the Church and were 
active in religious work, but Lincoln alone lays bare to us his 
soulful and secret intercessions with God in prayer, and 3/et 
no one of our chief magistrates possessed a larger measure 
than did Abraham Lincoln of that delicate sensibility that 
would naturally cause him to keep closed the door of his 
closet of secret prayer. No one would have been more in- 
clined than he to avoid unnecessary mention of religious mat- 
ters in conversation, public address, or state papers. Under 
the tremendous strain and stress of his presidential duties he 
was often pressed to his knees; and happily for us there are 
times when he invites us into the inner sanctuary of his confi- 
dent and constant dependence upon God, and reveals his habit 
of frequent and fervent prayer. 

So clear and emphatic, so many and unreserved are his 
declarations respecting his confidence in God, his submission 
to the divine will, and his assurance that in His own good 
time our Heavenly Father would give victory and restore peace 
to the nation, that, mingled with the tumult of the battlefield, 
we can hear the voice of earnest entreaty coming from the 
secret sanctuary of the White House and ascending to the 
throne of God. And sometimes during the silence of the mid- 
night hour, when weary soldiers rested on the fields stained 
with their own blood and with the blood of their fallen com- 



LINCOLN'S FAITH IN PRAYER 377 

rades, awaiting the renewed assaults the morning's gray dawn 
was sure to bring, the all-night vigils of "the Praying Presi- 
dent" were divided between the sound of the heavy tread of his 
tireless feet, as he strode from wall to wall of his private room, 
and those recurring seasons of oppressive silence which we 
have come to know he spent upon his knees in prayer. 

In his own lucid language and with becoming modesty he 
tells us the grounds on which he claimed divine interposition, 
the specific favors he sought, and his own solemn vows before 
God. We have but to read and meditate upon his own words 
respecting his prayerful life, and his life of prayer, to be 
able to recognize in every favorable issue of battle, every 
wise measure of administration, and the final triumph of 
right, the ever-present and potential influence of our mother- 
taught, Bible-built, Spirit-led President in his "power with 
God" in prayer. 

That the God-fearing people of the nation were also in 
pra37er does not weaken our claim that the most fitting picture* 
of Abraham Lincoln is one which represents him upon his 
knees in prayer, and that, as the v/orld meditates more deeply 
upon his own solemn words, and upon the testimony of those 
who knev/ him best, he will more and more come to be remem- 
bered, recognized and revered as "the Praying President" of 
the United States, 

The prayerfulness which characterized Mr. Lincoln's life 
in the White House began before his election as President. 
Dr. Newton Bateman tells us that during an interview in 
October, i860, "he freely stated his belief in the duty, privilege 
and efficacy of prayer, and intimated in no unmistakable terms 
that he had sought in that way the divine guidance and 
favor."^« 

Mrs. Lincoln states that on the morning of his first in- 
auguration, "He read his inaugural address to his family, and 
after having read it, he requested to be left alone. The door 
stood ajar, and his friends distinctly heard him in prayer, com- 
^* John Q, Holland, Life of Abraham Lincoln, p. 23S. *See p. 385. 



378 LATEST LIGHT ON ABRAHAM LINCOLN 

mending himself, his country, and his family to the care and 
protection of God. The weight of responsibility laid upon him 
was too great for his human heart to bear alone."" 

It was not alone on great occasions like that of his inaugura- 
tion that Mr. Lincoln turned to God in prayer. He prayed 
"at all seasons." Noah Brooks, who, but for the President's 
assassination would have been one of his confidential secre- 
taries, in a letter to Rev. J. A. Reed, states that Mr. Lincoln in- 
formed him "that after he went to the White House he kept 
up the habit of daily prayer. Sometimes he said it was only 
ten words but those ten words he had."" 

Hon. John G. Nicolay, one of the President's private sec- 
retaries, who knew him as fully as was the privilege of any 
man, says : "Mr. Lincoln was a praying man ; I know that to 
be a fact. And I have heard him request people to pray for 
him, which he would not have done had he not believed that 
prayer is answered. Many a time have I heard Mr. Lincoln 
ask ministers and Christian women to pray for him, and he 
did not do this for effect. He was no hypocrite, and had such 
reverence for sacred things that he would not trifle with them. 
I have heard him say that he prayed."^^ 

Of the many whose testimony respecting Mr. Lincoln's 
character and private life is of interest and value, there are 
none whose words should have greater weight with the reader 
than those of Major J. B. Merwin, who, for many years 
previous to the war and during all the period of that great 
struggle was intimately associated with Mr. Lincoln. They 
wrought together in the early and later fifties in behalf of anti- 
liquor legislation and the cause of temperance in general. And 
during all the period of the war Major Merwin was on such 
relations of intimacy with the President as might be expected 
from their relations and fellowship during preceding years. 

*' William M. Thayer, From Pioneer Home to White House, pp. 334-335. 

18 Scribner's Magazine, 1873, P- 333- 

J^ William Eleroy Curtis, The True Abraham Lincoln, pp. 385-386. 



LINCOLN'S FAITH IN PRAYER 379 

In October, 1910, Major Merwin, then living at Middlefield, 
Conn., wrote as follows: 

"I knew Mr. Lincoln intimately from 1854 on to the day 
of his assassination. Dined with him that day. He came to 
be one of the most profoundly Christian men I ever knew. He 
had no religious cant about him at all. I heard and saw Mr. 
Lincoln pray often. He was divinely aided, and asked — 
begged — for such guidance, conscious of his own need of help 
beyond any human aid."^° 

Coming as it does from a man of such great ability, exalted 
character and personal fellowship with Mr. Lincoln, as was 
the case with Judge Henry C. Whitney, the following touches 
our heart very deeply: 

"We sadly know that too many Christians pray perfuncto- 
rily, simply to pray — to observe the Christian habit and 
fashion ; but Lincoln did not pray as a form, or as an end. His 
prayers were for a utilitarian purpose and object — to obtain 
help in time of dire need. He says, 'I have been driven many 
times upon my knees by the overwhelming conviction that I 
had nowhere else to go ; my own wisdom and that of all about 
me seemed insufficient for that day.' " 

"His prayers were not as those of the hypocrites 'who 
stand and pray in the synagogues and in the corners of the 
streets that they may be seen of men,* nor did he 'use vain 
repetitions as the heathen do,* but he entered into his closet 
and when he had shut the door prayed to his Father in 
secret."" 

Of Lincoln's habitual prayerfulness, Judge Whitney thus 
testifies: "He believed in the direct intervention of God in our 
national affairs, and he frequently used to ask Him in a 
direct, manly way to grant this boon, avert that disaster, or 
advise him what to do in a given contingency."^^ 

Dr. Robert Browne publishes the following declaration of 

20 What was Abraham Lincoln's Religion? p. 26. 

21 Life on the Circuit with Lincoln, pp. 270-271. 

22 Lincoln, the Citizen, p. 207. 



38o LATEST LIGHT ON ABRAHAM LINCOLN 

Mr. Lincoln's: "I have talked with God. It is His cause, and 
the Union is His. As He willeth, so it will be. We can but 
follow and pray for its integrity and for mercy to the fallen."" 
After the second battle of Bull Run, President Lincoln 
said: "I have done as well as I could. I prayed to God to direct 
me the right way and now I must leave the consequences to 
Him." 

Prayer and Praise 

Upon one occasion while sitting at dinner he could not 
eat, being so full of trouble. Arousing himself from his rev- 
erie he remarked: "The battle of Port Hudson is now going on 
and many lives will be sacrificed on both sides, but I have 
done the best I could trusting in God ; for it will be unfortunate 
if they gain this important point. And on the other hand if 
we can only gain it we shall gain much and I think we shall 
for we have a great deal to thank God for, for we have Vicks- 
burg and Gettysburg already." Mrs. Rebecca Pomeroy, whom 
I am quoting, adds: "Said I to this great, good man, 'Mr. 
Lincoln, prayer will do what nothing else will. Can you not 
pray?' 'Yes, I will,' and while the tears were dropping from 
his haggard and worn-out face, he said, Tray for me.' And he 
went to his room, and could the nation have heard his earnest 
petition, as I did, they would have fallen on their knees in 
reverential sympathy. At twelve o'clock at night while the 
soldiers were guarding the house, the sentinel riding by, 
quickly halted in front of the house with a telegram that was 
carried to the President. In a few minutes after the door 
opened and the President, standing under the chandelier, with 
one of the sweetest expressions I ever saw him wear, said: 
'Good news ; good news ; Port Hudson is ours. The victory is 
ours and God is good.' Said I to him, 'Nothing like prayer in 
times of trouble.' 'Oh, yes, yes, praise, for prayer and praise 
go together.' "^* 

23 Abraham Lincoln and the Men of his Time, Vol. II., p. 378. 
2* Lincoln Scrap-book, p. 54. 



LINCOLN'S FAITH IN PRAYER 381 

Early Morning Vigil 

The full history of President Lincoln's midnight medita- 
tions and prayers, and of his early morning vigils, read like a 
romance in this age of easy living and limited religious fervor 
— as also reads the story of the lonely struggles of Jesus Christ. 
We can scarcely imagine that necessities could so weigh upon 
us, and the sense of helplessness and dependence upon God 
could be so keenly realized as to cause us to spend hours needed 
for rest in solitary places and in communion with the Father. 

The Gospel record of the Saviour's early morning vigil, 
*Tn the morning rising up a great while before day. He went 
out and departed into a solitary place and there prayed," is a 
fitting prelude to the following: 

"A distinguished lawyer of New York who is a professing 
Christian and an intimate friend of my informant had occa- 
sion some time since to see the President in Washington. He 
went to the White House, met Mr. Lincoln and asked for an 
interview of an hour. Mr, Lincoln said that the pressure of 
public duties forced him to decline such an interview. He 
urged that it was important. The President still declined. The 
gentleman was leaving when Mr. Lincoln stopped him and 
asked if he would be willing to come at five o'clock the next 
morning. He gladly agreed to do so and arrived at the White 
House the next morning as he supposed at five o'clock. 

"On consulting his watch at the street lamp he found he 
had made a mistake of an hour and that it was only four 
o'clock. He determined to walk about the grounds until the 
time agreed upon. Coming near a window of one of the 
rooms of the Presidential Mansion he heard sounds of ap- 
parent distress. On listening he found it was the voice of the 
President engaged in an agony of prayer. The burden of his 
petition was, 'Oh ! God, I cannot see my way. Give me light. 
I am ignorant, give me wisdom. Teach me what to do and help 
me to do it Our country Is in peril. Oh! God, it is Thy 
country, save it for Christ's sake.* 



382 LATEST LIGHT ON ABRAHAM LINCOLN 

"Here the gentleman felt his position to be questionable and 
passing on he left the President with his God. On entering 
the White House he mentioned what he had heard to the 
usher, who informed him that the President spent the hour 
between four and five every morning in prayer."** 

Prayer Answered 

It is beyond all question that much of Mr. Lincoln's re- 
markable wisdom, and his superiority to his fellows, which 
usually are attributed to his transcendent genius, were due to 
his familiarity with the Bible, his constant fellowship with 
God, and the promptings of the Holy Spirit. 

The Sanitary Commission, with all its complicated ma- 
chinery and its measureless influence for good, is usually re- 
garded as a product of Mr. Lincoln's heart and brain. But 
that Commission was the achievement of more than human 
wisdom as is shown by the following from Dr. Iglehart: 

"In my study at Buffalo, the officers of the Church, after 
the business of an evening had been transacted, fell into an in- 
formal discussion of the subject of Lincoln's religion. One 
claimed that Lincoln was a rank atheist. Another said he 
was inclined to think him an unbeliever, especially since he 
had read what Lincoln's old law partner had said on the sub- 
ject. Most of those present held the opinion that he was a man 
of faith and prayer, a true Christian. I suggested that the 
difference of opinion on the subject grew out of the fact that 
early in life Lincoln, like many others, had a period of un- 
behef, when he said and wrote some things unfriendly to 
Christianity, but that when he came up to the tremendous 
responsibilities of leadership that were laid upon him, he 
leaned hard upon the Divine arm, and sought and found divine 
guidance, and that in character and life he proved himself to 
be a true Christian. Dr. (David) Hill, a trustee, who had been 
silent up to this time said: "Brethren, I think I can settle the 

25 Rev. John Falkner Blake, Rector of Christ Church, Bridgeport, Conn., 
in a sermon delivered April 19th, 1865. 



LINCOLN'S FAITH IN PRAYER 383 

question and put at rest any doubt of the great President's 
faith. During the v.ar there was a reception given at the 
White House to the members of the Sanitary Commission. 
I was present. During the evening I took the opportunity to 
compHment President Lincohi on tlie wonderful success of the 
Commission. He said, 'Doctor, would you like to know how 
this institution was started?' 'I certainly would, Mr. Presi- 
dent,' said I. He continued, 'One rainy night I could not 
sleep; the wounds of the soldiers and sailors distressed me; 
their pains pierced my heart, and I asked God to show me 
how they could have better relief. After wrestling some time 
in prayer, He put the plans of the Sanitary Commission in my 
mind, and they have been carried out pretty much as God 
gave them to me that night. Doctor, thank our kind heavenly 
Father and not me for the Sanitary Commission.' 'Do you 
think,' said Dr. Hill, 'that a man that would do or talk that 
way could be anything but a true behever. Gentlemen, if those 
of us who are leaders in the Church, shall have as much real 
religion as President Lincoln had we will have very little 
difficulty in getting to heaven.' After Dr. Hill had spoken 
there was nothing more to be said on the subject and it was 
unanimously agreed that Lincoln was a true believer in God 
and in His holy religion." 

This charming and instructive story, as it here appears, 
was recently sent me by the narrator, Rev. F. C. Iglehart, D.D., 
with a letter granting permission to reproduce it. It is unsur- 
passed in its disclosure of Mr. Lincoln's belief in a God who 
hears and answers prayer. 

With peculiar satisfaction I call attention of the reader to 
an incident made public by the distinguished elocutionist and 
lecturer, James F. Murdoch. We can never know the full 
extent of the nation's obligations to that distinguished patriot. 
It was m.y privilege to be active in the stirring events with 
which he was connected, and I know much of his patriotic 
sacrifices and services. When the exigencies of the nation 
seemed to require of him the sacrifice, he turned aside from 



384 LATEST LIGHT ON ABRAHAM LINCOLN 

lucrative employment and devoted his time, talent and income 
to the nation's needs. His matchless talent as a reader, his 
personal integrity, and his known devotion to the country 
caused Mr. Murdoch to be held in high esteem during the 
years of my residence at Washington. No hall was sufficiently 
large to hold the audience that would gather when it was an- 
nounced that in the interest of some patriotic movement Mr. 
Murdoch would give an entertainment, I still can hear in 
memory the loud and prolonged applause with which his ap- 
pearance on the platform was always greeted, and with which 
his rendering of Barbara Frietchie, Sheridan's Ride, and like 
readings were responded to by the multitude who heard him. 

Mr. Lincoln appreciated Mr. Murdoch's services and when 
convenient delighted to have him as his guest at the White 
House. 

The editor of The Advance tells this never-to-be-forgotten 
story which he had from his lips: "I spent three weeks in the 
White House with Mr. Lincoln as his guest. One night, it 
was just after the Battle of Bull Run, I was restless and could 
not sleep. I was repeating the part which I was to take in a 
public performance. The hour was past midnight, indeed it 
w^as coming near the dawn, when I heard low tones proceed- 
ing from a private room near v^'here the President slept. The 
door was partly open. I saw the President kneeling beside 
an open window. The light was turned low in the room His 
back was toward me. For a moment I was silent, looking in 
amazement and wonder. Then he cried out in tones so plead- 
ing and sorrowful: *0, thou God that heard Solomon in the 
night when he prayed for wisdom, hear me. I cannot lead this 
people, I cannot guide the affairs of this nation without Thy 
help. I am poor, and weak and sinful. O God, who didst 
hear Solomon when he cried for wisdom, hear ma and save this 
nation.' " 

Then Mr. Murdoch adds: "I think from that time tha 
clouds which had hung low and threatening over the affairs of 
our government, began to roll away ; the skies were brighter ; 



LINCOLN'S FAITH IN PRAYER 385 

the smile of heaven was upon our President. God heard his 
prayer and sent deUverance."^® 

Those who would know Abraham Lincoln must see him in 
his secret chamber on his knees before Almighty God, as Mur- 
doch did, and must, as did that distinguished patriot, hear him 
pray. 

The Rev. F. C. Monfort, D.D., editor and pubUsher of The 
Herald and Presbyter, Cincinnati, Ohio, on May 2nd, 19 14, 
wrote me as follows: 

"I studied elocution under James F. Murdoch and talked 
with him frequently. 1 have heard him tell the story of Abra- 
ham Lmcoln's prayer which he overheard. I do not remember 
details nor even where he was, though the impression is in my 
mind that he was a visitor at the White House." 

But of all the testimonies regarding President Lincoln's 
religious faith and life the greatest and best is a declaration 
made by him to General Daniel E. Sickles on July 5th, 1863. 

It will be remembered that the Battle of Gettysburg was 
fought on the ist, 2nd, and 3rd of July, 1863, and that General 
Sickles, while in command of the Third Corps in that battle, 
received a severe wound requiring the amputation of one of his 
legs. On the Sunday following the battle General Sickles was 
in the hospital at Washington and was called upon by General 
James F. Rusling, a member of his stafif, who states that soon 
after his arrival President Lincoln came "with his son Tad' 
and remained an hour or more." General Rushng states that 
during this visit General Sickles inquired of the President if 
he were anxious respecting the results of the battle at Gettys- 
burg. What followed this inquiry is thus stated and confirmed 
by both General Rusling and General Sickles: 

In reply to a question from General Sickles whether or not 
the President was anxious about the Battle of Gettysburg, 
Lincoln gravely said: "No, sir, I was not; some of my Cabinet 
and many others m Washington were, but I had no fears." 
General Sickles inquired how this was, and seemed curious 

''" The Presbyterian, April 5th, 1893. 



386 LATEST LIGHT ON ABRAHAM LINCOLN 

about it. Mr. Lincoln hesitated, but finally said: "Well, I will 
tell you how it was. In the pinch of your campaign up there, 
when everybody seemed panic-stricken, and nobody could tell 
what was going to happen, oppressed by the gravity of our 
affairs, I went to my room one day, and locked the door, and 
got down on my knees before Almighty God, and prayed to 
Him mightily for victory at Gettysburg. I told Him that this 
was His war, and our cause His cause, but we could not stand 
another Fredericksburg or Chancellorsville. And I then and 
there made a solemn vow to Almighty God, that if He would 
stand by our boys at Gettysburg, I would stand by Him. And 
He did stand by you boys, and I will stand by Him. And after 
that, I don't know how it was and I can't explain it, soon a 
sweet comfort crept into my soul that Almighty God had 
taken the whole business into His own hands and that things 
would go all right at Gettysburg. And that is why I had no 
fears about you." 

Asked concerning Vicksburg, the news of which victory 
had not yet reached him, he said: "I have been praying for 
Vicksburg also, and believe our heavenly Father is going to 
give us the victory there, too." Of course, he did not know 
that Vicksburg had already surrendered the day before. Gen- 
eral Rusling says that Mr. Lincoln spoke "calmly and pathet- 
ically, as if from the depths of his heart," and that "his man- 
ner was deeply touching." 

The story of the Lincoln-Sickles interview was first told, 
as I believe, soon after the Battle of Gettysburg, by General 
Sickles himself in an address at a banquet in Washington, 
D. C. It was subsequently wTitten out with care by General 
Rusling and pubHshed as it here appears, and on the nth of 
February, 191 1, General Sickles, who has since passed away, 
certified that the statement above quoted was correct. 

General Rusling is still living and at his home, in Trenton, 
New Jersey, on the 24th day of June, 19 14, gave the follow- 
ing autograph certificate for publication in this volume: 




GENERAL DANIEL E. SICKLES 

To whom Lincoln stated that he prayed during the Battle ot Gettysburg. From 

an original photograph in the author's collection. 

(See page 383) 



LINCOLN'S FAITH IN PRAYER 387 

"I hereby certify that the foregoing is an account prepared 
by me, of a conversation between President Lincoln and Gen- 
eral Sickles in my presence at Washington, D. C, July 5th, 
1863, relating to Gettysburg. That statement was prepared 
with great care and is absolutely correct in every particular. 

James F. Rusling, 
Trenton, N. J. Bvt. Brig. Gen'l U. S. A. 

June 24, 1914." 

Abraham Lincoln was himself the strongest evidence of 
faith in the efficacy of prayer, and of personal prayerfulness. 
Stronger proof of this than the multiplied testimonies of those 
who knew him most intimately, stronger even than his own 
emphatic declarations of his confident waiting upon God in 
soulful supplication were his Christlike character and life. 
Such qualities of heart and soul as those which he ever mani- 
fested, are the fruitage of devout and earnest prayer. 

Only at the Mercy-seat where the sweet incense of interces- 
sion rises before the Lord and fills all the Holy Place, can the 
fragrance of such holy living be secured. Only by "beholding 
as in a glass the glory of the Lord" are we "changed into the 
same image from glory to glory, even as by the Spirit of the 
Lord." (2 Cor. 3:18.) And that transforming vision of which 
the Apostle here speaks, is the exclusive privilege of those who 
"behold the beauty of the Lord and inquire in his temple." 
As the Master prayed "the fashion of His countenance was 
altered," and He was transfigured before His amazed dis- 
ciples. The face of Moses became luminous with divine glory 
as he held communion with Jehovah and though "he wist not 
that his face did shine," all who saw him were deeply moved 
by the marvelous transformation. 

Such qualities of soul and spirit as were possessed and 
manifested by Abraham Lincoln are formed only in that inner 
sanctuary where a devout and earnest soul meets with God in 
prayer. And only by prolonged and patient waiting upon the 



388 LATEST LIGHT ON ABRAHAM LINCOLN 

Lord in earnest supplication can any one attain, as Mr. Lin- 
coln did, to such high degrees of Christian qualities. 

There is a profound significance in Mr. Lincoln's belief in 

A Future Judgment 

It is said of Daniel Webster that late in his life that great 
statesman and orator was asked what he regarded as the most 
solemn and impressive of all his thoughts. To this question, 
after a moment's silence, he slowly and forcefully replied: 
"The thought of my personal responsibility to God." Abra- 
ham Lincoln lived and toiled, sacrificed and suffered in the 
constant realization of that most solemn and impressive 
thought. His honesty appeared to spring from religious con- 
victions, and it was his habit when conversing of things which 
most intimately concerned himself to say that however he 
might be misapprehended by men who did not appear to know 
him, he was glad to know that no thought or intent of his 
escaped the observation of that Judge by whose final decree he 
expected to stand or fall in this world and the next. It 
seemed as though this was his surest refuge at times when he 
was most misunderstood or misrepresented. 

In his first inaugural address, delivered March 4th, 1861, 
to those who were at that time contemplating rebellion on ac- 
count of his election, he said: "You can have no conflict with- 
out being yourselves the aggressors. You have no oath regis- 
tered in heaven to destroy the government, while I shall have 
the most solemn one to 'preserve, protect and defend it.' "^^ 

In his address at a fair in the interest of the Sanitary Com- 
mission, in Baltimore on April 18th, 1864, referring to his 
enlistment of colored people in the army, Mr. Lincoln said: 
"Upon a clear conviction of duty I am resolved to turn that 
element of strength to account; and I am responsible for it to 
the American people, to the Christian world, to history, and 
in my final account to God.""^ 

27 Complete Works of Abraham Lincoln, Vol. VI., pp. 184-185. 

28 Ibid., Vol. X., p. 79- 




GENERAL JAMES F. RUSLING 
Whose account of President Lincoln's interview with General Sickles is 

here published. 

(See page 387) 



LINCOLN'S FAITH IN PRAYER 389 

A few days later, May 30th, 1864, in a letter to Senator 
Doolittle and others, from which I have quoted elsewhere, Mr. 
Lincoln stated: "When brought to my final reckoning may I 
have to answer for robbing no man of his goods, yet more 
tolerable even this, than for robbing one of himself and all that 
was his."'' 

Speaking of a pardon which he had just issued to a soldier 
under sentence of death, he said: "I could not think of going 
into eternity with the blood of the poor young man on my 
skirts."'" 

In their great contribution to the literature of the world, 
entitled, "Abraham Lincoln, A History," the private secreta- 
ries of the great President speak of his sense of responsibility 
to God and belief in a future judgment in the following chaste 
and forceful language: "From that morning when, standing 
amid the falling snowflakes on the railway car at Springfield, 
he asked the prayers of his neighbors in those touching phrases 
whose echo rose that night in invocations from thousands of 
family altars, to the memorable hour when on the steps of the 
National Capitol he humbled himself before his Creator in the 
sublime words of the second inaugural, there is not an expres- 
sion known to have come from his lips or pen but proves that 
he held himself answerable in every act of his career to a more 
august tribunal than any on earth. The fact that he was not 
a communicant of any church, and that he was singularly 
reserved in regard to his personal religious life, gives only the 
greater force to these striking proofs of his profound rever- 
ence and faith." 

Mr. Lincoln's religious faith unquestionably included be- 
lief in 

Future Punishment 

With him character and destiny were inseparably con- 
nected. The reward of virtue and the punishment of sin were 
sure. This life was the seed time of which the life to come was 

29 Complete Works of Abraham Lincoln, Vol. X., pp. 109-110. 
so D. D. Thompson, Abraham Lincoln, p. 83. 



390 LATEST LIGHT ON ABRAHAM LINCOLN 

the harvest. He speaks of the "finally impenitent" clearly in- 
dicating his belief in the duration of moral conditions beyond 
the confines of this present world. Early in his public life, 
when a member of the Illinois legislature, during a tremendous 
struggle to secure the removal of the capital of the state from 
Salem to Springfield, Mr. Lincoln was greatly disturbed by 
efforts to corole with that movement, which he approved, 
other measures to which he was unchangeably opposed. While 
that struggle was in progress a caucus was held for the purpose 
of dissuading Mr. Lincoln from his determination to oppose 
the capital removal measure unless it was disassociated from 
the schemes to which he objected. Mr. Lincoln remained un- 
yielding and past the hour of midnight he arose in the caucus 
and made what has been characterized as a speech of great 
eloquence and power in opposition to the movement as it then 
stood, at the close of which he said: "You may burn my body 
to ashes, and scatter them to the winds of heaven; you may 
drag my soul down to the regions of darkness and despair to 
be tormented forever ; but you will never get me to support a 
measure which I believe to be wrong, although by doing so I 
may accomplish that which I believe to be right."^^ 

In a letter to George Robertson dated August 15th, 1855, 
Mr. Lincoln expresses great depression of spirits, in view of 
what he regarded as the tendency in the direction of the per- 
petuation and nationalization of the institution of slavery. In 
this letter he says: "So far as peaceable voluntary Emancipa- 
tion is concerned, the condition of the Negro slave in America, 
scarcely less terrible to the contemplation of a free man, is 
now as fixed and hopeless of change for the better, as that of 
the lost souls of the finally impenltent."^^ 

In granting a respite for Nathaniel Gordon, to whom he 
could not see his way clear to give a pardon, on February 4th, 
1862, Mr. Lincoln said: "In granting this respite it becomes 
my painful duty to admonish the prisoner that, relinquishing 

31 Ida M. Tarbell, Life of Lincoln, Vol. L, p. 139. 

32 Complete Works of Abraham Lincoln, Vol. IL, p. 280. 



A PRAYING PRESIDEBT. 

GEM. JAlffiS F. RUSLING, of Trenton, H.J. , relates a Bigni- 
fioant oonversation which he heard on Sunday, July 5, 1863, In the 
room in Washington where Gen. Sickles lay wounded. Just after the 
great victory at Gettysburg. In reply to a question from Gen. 
Sickles whether or not the President was anxious ahout the battle 
at Gettysburg, Lincoln gravely said, "Ho, I was not; some of my 
cabinet and many others in Washington were, but I had no fears." 
Gen. Sickles inquired how this was, and seemed curious about it. 
Mr. Lincoln hesitated, but finally replied: "Well, I will tell you 
how it was. In the pinch of your campaign up there, when every- 
■body seemed panic-strioken, and nobody could tell what was going 
to happen, oppressed by the gravity of our affairs, I went to my 
room one day, and locked the door, and got down on my knees be- 
fore Almighty God, and prayed to Him mightily for victory at 
Gettysburg. I told Him that this was His war, and our cause Hi8 
oauee, but we couldn't stand another Fredericksburg or Chancellora- 
Tllle. And I then and there made a solemn vow to Almighty God, 
that if He would stand by our boys at Gettysburg, I would stand 
by Him. And He did stand by you boys, and I will stand by Him . 
And after that (I don't know how it was, and I can't explain it). 
Boon a sweet comfort crept into my soul that God Almighty had 
taken the whole business into His own hands and that things would 
go all right at Gettysburg. And that is why I had no fears about 
you." Asked concerning Vioksburg, the news of which victory had 
not yet reached him, he said, "I have been praying for Vicksburg 
also, and believe our Heavenly Father is going to give us victory 
there, too." Of course, he did not know that Vlcksburg had al- 
ready surrendered the day before. Gen. Rusling says that Mr. 
Lincoln spoke "solemnly and pathetically, as if from the depth 
of his heart," and that his manner was deeply touching. 
GENERAL RUSLING'S CERTIFICATE 



1 hereby certify that the foregoing is an account prepared 
by me of a oonversation between President Lincoln and Gen. Sickles 
in my presence at Washington, B.C., July 5, 1863, relating to 
Gettysburg. That statement was prepared with great care and is 
absolutely correct in every particular. 



Trenton, H.J. 
June 24, 1914. 




"llAf^, ^W^ t'NjjU. 



LINCOLN'S FAITH IN PRAYER 39I 

all expectation of pardon by human authority, he refer himself 
alone to the mercy of the common God and Father of all 
men."^^ 

Rev. Theodore Cuyler, D.D., says: "On the day after he 
(Lincoln) heard of the awful slaughter at Fredericksburg, he 
remarked at the War Office, Tf any of the lost in hell suffered 
worse than I did last night I pity them.' "^* 

Probably the most emphatic d-^claratlon of Mr. Lincoln 
concerning the future punishment ib to be found in his refer- 
ence to the efforts which were being made to induce him to 
retract and nullify the Emancipation Proclamation. Respect- 
ing those efforts he says: "There have been men base enough to 
propose to me to return to slavery the black warriors of Port 
Hudson and Olustee, and thus win the respect of the masters 
they fought. Should I do so, I should deserve to be damned in 
time and eternity. Come what will, I will keep my faith with 
friend and foe.""" 

Consolation in Death 

As early as February 3rd, 1842, in a letter of touching 
tenderness, addressed to his lifelong friend, Joshua F. Speed, 
in speaking of the serious and possibly fatal illness of his 
friend's wife, Mr. Lincoln said: "The death scenes of those we 
love are surely painful enough ; but these we are prepared for 
and expect to see ; they happen to all, and all know they must 
happen. Painful as they are, they are not an imlooked for 
sorrow. Should she, as you fear, be destined to an early grave, 
it Is indeed a great consolation to know that she Is so well 
prepared to meet it. Her religion which you once disliked so 
much, I will venture you now prize most highly."^® 

In addition to the assurance afforded by the foregoing 
letter of Mr. Lincoln's belief In the consolations of grace at 

33 Complete Works of Abraham Lincoln, Vol. VIL, p. 96. 
'* Recollections of a Long Life, p. 145. 
'5 Complete Works of Abraham Lincoln, Vol. X., p. 191. 
a« Ibid., Vol. L, p. 186. 



392 LATEST LIGHT ON ABRAHAI^I LINCOLN 

death, we are also assured of his firm and unquestioning faith 
in 

A Future Life 

Mrs. Pomeroy, from whom I have already quoted, says 
concerning this: "The first four weeks that I was looking after 
little Tad I was feeling exceedingly anxious about my boys 
(sick soldiers) and the President proposed taking me every 
few days to the hospital fiat I might report to him how they 
felt when near death, and what they thought of the future."" 

Rev. F. C Iglehart, D.D., tells us that sitting by the bed- 
side of a dying woman for whom he had just written a will, 
Mr. Lincoln listened to her joyful declaration that she was 
fully prepared for death and for the future life, and very 
feelingly said: "Your faith in Christ is wise and strong. Your 
hope of a future life is blessed. You are to be congratulated 
on passing through this life so usefully and into the future 
so happily."^^ 

In 1856, at the residence of the Hon. Norman B. Judd, in 
Chicago, Mr. Lincoln with rare beauty and fitness expressed 
his belief in Immortality and the future life, as follows: 

"It was in the autumn of that year, and during the trial in 
the Federal Court of the great Rock Island Bridge case, in- 
volving the right of the railway company to bridge the Missis- 
sippi. Lincoln was spending the evening at the home of Airs. 
Judd, situated on Michigan Avenue, and looking directly out 
upon Lake Michigan. As the party sat on the piazza, the full 
moon rose out of the lake, casting its light on many a sail of 
the numerous ships going in and out of the harbor. The waves 
were beating a low anthem against the breakwater and the 
shore. The scene, beautiful beyond description, was peculiarly 
novel and impressive to Mr. Lincoln, whose home was on the 
prairies far inland. He recited, with great expression, Bu- 
chanan Read's poem, descriptive of the Bay of Naples, and 
then went on to speak of the wonders of astronomy and of the 

3' Lincoln Scrap-book, p. 54. ss The Speaking Oak. 



LINCOLN'S FAITH IN PRAYER 393 

sublime power of the great Creator, who had brought the 
numberless worlds all around us into existence, and who had 
created man with an intellect able to discover the wonders of 
the universe. 'Surely God would not have created such a be- 
ing as man, with an ability to grasp the infinite, to exist only 
for a day! No,' said he, 'man was made for immortality."^^ 
It is comforting to know that in the midst of his weariness, 
heartache and anguish of soul Mr. Lincoln fully beheved in 
and looked confidently forward to 

Eternal Felicity in Heaven 

On the 1 2th of January, 1851, in a letter to his stepbrother, 
John D. Johnston, he said: "I sincerely hope father may re- 
cover his health, but at all events, tell him to remember to call 
upon and confide in our great and good and merciful Maker, 
who will not turn from him in any extremity. He notes the 
fall of the sparrow, and numbers the hairs of our heads, and 
He will not forget the dying man who puts his trust in Him. 
Say to him that if we could meet now it is doubtful whether it 
would not be more painful than pleasant, but that if it be his 
lot to go now, he will soon have a joyous meeting with many 
loved ones gone before, and where the rest of us, through the 
help of God, hope ere long to join them."*" 

Mr. Lincoln's belief in the reuniting of earthly ties and 
recognition in heaven was very beautifully declared by an ex- 
pressive gesture a few weeks previous to his departure from 
Springfield to assume the duties of President. With that 
filial devotion for which he was so distinguished, he took a 
cross-country ride by private conveyance to a distant place for 
a last interview with his beloved stepmother, who was then far 
advanced in years and very feeble. 

At the close of their brief visit Mr. Lincoln arose and af- 
fectionately embraced the white-haired matron, pressing her 

39 I. N. Arnold, The Layman's Faith, p. 29. 

40 Complete Works of Abraham Lincoln, Vol. IL, p. 148. 



394 LATEST LIGHT ON ABRAHAM LINCOLN 

close to his breast and tenderly caressing her withered cheek. 
"Abram," she said with trembling voice, "I shall never see you 
again." 

Pressing her still more closely to his breast and raising his 
right hand with his finger pointing upward he said: "Mother," 
and not another word was uttered. That silent gesture was 
more eloquent than words and was prophetic of their reunion 
in a better world. 

Elizabeth Keckley says: "When Willie died, as he lay on 
the bed, Mr. Lincoln came to the bed, lifted the cover from the 
face of his child, gazed at it long and earnestly murmuring: 
'My poor boy, he was too good for this earth. God has called 
him home. I know that he is much better of¥ in heaven, but 
then we loved him so. It is hard, hard to have him die.' "" 

41 Behind the Scenes, p. 103. 



LINCOLN'S RELIGIOUS EXPERIENCE 

THE foregoing array of evidence proves beyond all ques- 
tion that Abraham Lincoln firmly believed in the 
Bible as the divinely inspired Word of God, and in 
the commonly accepted doctrines of the Christian Church. 
His own statements in official papers, public utterances, private 
correspondence, and personal interviews, respecting these mat- 
ters are so clear and unequivocal, so pronounced and earnest, 
as to answer fully and forever all inquiries respecting his 
religious belief. 

Equally abundant and convincing is the evidence of his 
personal religious experiences and life. That he accepted 
Jesus Christ as his personal Saviour and became the recipient 
of the regenerating work of the Holy Spirit is as certain as 
any historical fact. Evidence of this is cumulative and com- 
plete and includes all kinds of authentic, valid testimony. 

Abraham Lincoln's Conversion 

Written statements in Mr. Lincoln's own handwriting con- 
stitute evidence touching this matter which no one can reason- 
ably deny or doubt. Next in value and' strength to such testi- 
mony are the authentic statements of trustworthy persons who 
were closely associated with Mr. Lincoln and were highly es- 
teemed and trusted by him. Of such persons there was not 
one more trustworthy or more fully trusted than Rev. James 
F. Jaquess, D.D., pastor of the First Methodist Episcopal 
Church, in Springfield, Illinois, and later Colonel of the 73rd 
Regiment Volunteer Infantry, during all the history of that 
famous regiment. 

395 



396 LATEST LIGHT ON ABRAHAM LINCOLN 

President Lincoln's high estimate of the character and 
worth of Colonel Jaquess was forcefully expressed at the time 
of his assignment by the President to one of the most im- 
portant and peculiarly difficult and successful missions of the 
war, the Jaquess-Gilmore Embassy of Peace, of which an ex- 
tended account appears elsewhere in this work and should be 
read in connection with the subjoined statement by Colonel 
Jaquess respecting an interview between Mr. Lincoln and 
himself in Springfield, Illinois. 

Colonel Jaquess' Statement 

was made at a reunion of the 73rd Regiment of the Illi- 
nois Infantry, held September 28-29, 1897, in Springfield, 
and is as follows: 

"The mention of Mr. Lincoln's name recalls to my mind 
an occurrence that perhaps I ought to mention. Very soon 
after my second year's work as a minister in the Illinois Con- 
ference I was sent to Springfield. 

"One beautiful Sunday morning in May, I was standing 
in the front door of the parsonage when a little boy came 
up to me and said: 'Mr. Lincoln sent me around to see if you 
was going to preach today.' Now, I had met Mr. Lincoln, 
but I never thought any more of 'Abe' Lincoln than I did 
of any one else. I said to the boy: 'You go back and tell 
Mr. Lincoln that if he will come to church he will see whether 
I am going to preach or not.' The little fellow stood work- 
ing his fingers and finally said: 'Mr. Lincoln told me he 
would give me a quarter if I would find out whether you 
are going to preach.' I did not want to rob the little fellow 
of his income, so I told him to tell Mr. Lincoln that I was 
going to try to preach. 

"The church was filled that morning. It was a good-sized 
church, but on that day all the seats were filled. I had chosen 
for my text the words, 'Ye must be born again,' and during 
the course of my sermon I laid particular stress on the word 
'must.' Mr. Lincoln came into the church after the services 



LINCOLN'S RELIGIOUS EXPERIENCE 397 

had commenced, and there being no vacant seats, chairs were 
put in the altar in front of the pulpit, and Mr. Lincoln and 
Governor French and wife sat in the altar during the entire 
services, Mr. Lincoln on my left and Governor French on my 
right, and I noticed that Mr. Lincoln appeared to be deeply 
interested in the sermon, A few days after that Sunday 
Mr. Lincoln called on me and informed me that he had been 
greatly impressed with my remarks on Sunday and that he 
had come to talk with me further on the matter. I invited 
him in, and my wife and I talked and prayed with him for 
hours. Now, I have seen many persons converted ; I have seen 
hundreds brought to Christ, and if ever a person was con- 
verted, Abraham Lincoln was converted that night in my 
house."^ 

There is every reason for giving this remarkable story 
unquestioning credence. That it was voluntarily related by 
Colonel Jaquess at the time and upon the occasion designated 
is beyond question. It is recorded here just as given by him 
in the printed proceedings of a reunion of Colonel Jaquess' 
regiment. It is also certain that the Colonel was absolutely 
incapable of fabricating such a story. Furthermore, the inci- 
dent explains the apparently mysterious eagerness with which 
President Lincoln welcomed, considered and favored the seem- 
ingly preposterous mission proposed by Colonel Jaquess in 
1863. Such an incident as is mentioned in this Jaquess state- 
ment could not have failed to cause Mr. Lincoln to hold the 
minister with whom he had such an interview in high esteem 
and to cherish for him the confidence and love which he man- 
ifested toward him. It is well known that Mr. Lincoln ap- 
proved of, and enjoyed a sermon aflame with fervid enthu- 
siasm. He was greatly interested in and deeply moved by 
the preaching of Rev. Peter Aked whose burning eloquence 
was not unlike that of Dr. Jaquess. Hence, the diligence with 

* Minutes of the proceedings of the Eleventh Annual Reunion Survivors 
73rd Regiment, Illinois Infantry Volunteers, p. 30. The Christian Advo- 
cate, November nth, 1909. 



398 LATEST LIGHT ON ABRAHAM LINCOLN 

which Mr. Lincoln sought to be assured that Dr. Jaquess 
would preach on that Sabbath morning in May, 1849, ^^d 
his profound interest in the sermon to which he listened. 

The prolonged silence of those who knew of this event 
in Mr. Lincoln's life is quite understandable and does not 
justify any doubt of the story itself. It was like Mr. Lincoln 
to make no mention of this event to any person; and it was 
just like Dr. Jaquess to regard the affair as confidential, and 
to leave the question of publicity at the time wholly with Mr. 
Lincoln. Some preachers would have proclaimed the event 
from the housetop, but Mr. Lincoln never would have sought 
such an interview with a minister of that caliber and character. 

It was with reference to this same subject of the new 
birth that Nicodemus had his memorable private interview "at 
night" with the Master, and we have no information that 
either Jesus or Nicodemus ever gave the affair any publicity, 
until after the lapse of half a century the story was told in 
the Gospel by John. 

Mr. Lincoln's subsequent period of doubt concerning re- 
ligious matters was strictly normal, and does not to any degree 
discredit the account of the declaration of his acceptance of 
Christ during the interview in the Jaquess' home. As else- 
where stated, people of Mr. Lincoln's temperament and mental 
make-up usually come into a large and satisfying faith by 
passing through a period of doubt. Therefore, instead of dis- 
crediting the Jaquess' story, Mr. Lincoln's later season of 
doubt confirms the account of that event in his life and bears 
witness to his surrender to Christ, as stated by Colonel Jaquess, 
and to the sincerity of subsequent efforts to keep the cove- 
nant he made at the time of that surrender. That surrender 
of his will and heart naturally called for the approval of 
his reason and led to investigation of Christian evidences 
which followed, and which was so honest and thorough as 
to seem to be unsettling; but which, in fact, was the process 
by which a strongly intellectual nature reached settled and 
satisfactory convictions. 



LINCOLN'S RELIGIOUS EXPERIENCE 399 

The claim that Mr. Lincoln was so deeply moved by Dr. 
Jaquess' sermon on the "New Birth" as to seek from him fur- 
ther light on the subject, and that at the interview in the 
parsonage he declared his acceptance of Christ as his personal 
Saviour is not at variance with any of Mr. Lincoln's subse- 
quent declarations. In considering those declarations it should 
be remembered that Mr. Lincoln was of a secretive nature 
and respecting religious matters he was peculiarly 

Reserved and Reticent. 

Mr. Lincoln seemed to regard his personal religious experi- 
ence as a matter of sacred confidence between himself and the 
Saviour. He was familiar with the testimony given by pro- 
fessing Christians at "Experience meetings," and always lis- 
tened to them with interest, but with rare exceptions he re- 
frained from speaking of his own religious experience. While 
delighting to bear witness to his faith in God and in the 
Scriptures, and to his trust in Divine Providence, he was 
exceptionally reserved and reluctant in regard to the work of 
grace in his own heart. To only a favored few, and upon 
rare occasions, did he speak of his personal relation to Christ. 

So acute and accurate was he in perception, and so sensi- 
tive to spiritual atmosphere that it required a delicate and 
peculiarly responsive nature to cause him to unbosom himself 
by speaking of the things of the inner life. Referring to this 
trait in his character Colonel A. K. McClure remarks : "I saw 
Mr. Lincoln many times during his Presidential term, and, 
like all of the many others who had intimate relations with 
him, I enjoyed his confidence only within the limitations of the 
necessities of the occasion."^ 

To the same effect Colonel McClure says still further: 
"Mr. Lincoln gave his confidence to no living man without 
reservation. He trusted many, but he trusted only within 
the carefully-studied limitations of their usefulness, and when 

2 Lincoln and Men of War Times, p. 4. 



400 LATEST LIGHT ON ABRAHAM LINCOLN 

he trusted he confided, as a rule, only to the extent necessary 
to make that trust available." ^ 

This from F. B. Carpenter, the artist: "Doubtless he felt 
as deeply upon the great questions of the soul and eternity 
as any other thoughtful man; but the very tenderness and 
humility of his nature would not permit the exposure of his 
inmost convictions, except upon the rarest occasions, and to 
his most intimate friends."^ 

And this from Dr. J. G. Holland: "It was rare that he 
exhibited what was religious in him ; and he never did this at 
all, except when he found just the nature and character that 
were sympathetic with that aspect and element of his char- 
acter. A. great deal of his best, deepest, largest life he kept 
almost constantly from view, because he would not expose it 
to the eyes and apprehension of the careless multitude."'^ 

In connection with the account of the "Bateman Inter- 
view" Dr. Holland has this to say: "It was one of the pecu- 
liarities of Mr. Lincoln to hide these religious experiences 
from the eyes of the world. In the same State House where 
this conversation occurred, there were men who imagined — 
who really believed, who freely said — that Mr, Lincoln had 
probably revealed himself with less restraint to them than 
to others, men who thought they knew him as they knew their 
bosom companions, who had never in their whole lives heard 
from his lips one word of all these religious convictions 
and experiences. They did not regard him as a religious 
man. They had never seen anything but the active lawyer, 
the keen politician, the jovial, fun-loving companion, in Mr. 
Lincoln. All this department of his life he had kept carefully 
hidden from them. Why he should say that he was obliged 
to appear differently to others does not appear; but the fact 
is a m.atter of history that he never exposed his own religious 
life to those who had no sympathy with it. It is doubtful 

3 Lincoln and Men of War Times, p. 65. 

* Six Months in the White House, pp. 185-186. 

5 Life of Abraham Lincoln, p. 241. 



LINCOLN'S RELIGIOUS EXPERIENCE 401 

whether the clergymen of Springfield knew anything of these 
experiences. Very few of them were in political sympathy with 
him ; and it is evident that he could open his heart to no one 
except under the most favorable circumstances. The fountain 
from which gushed up so grand and good a life was kept 
carefully covered from the eyes of the world. Its possessor 
looked into it often, but the careless or curious crowd were 
never favored with the vision. There was much in his con- 
duct that was simply a cover to these thoughts — an attempt 
to conceal them."® 

There were, however, some, though only a very limited 
number, to whom Mr, Lincoln spoke quite freely respecting 
his religious experiences. Late in October, i860, in one of 
his doubting moods, a few days prior to his first election to 
the Presidency, Mr. Lincoln in conversation with Dr. Newton 
Bateman said: "I am not a Christian. God knows I would 
be one, but I have carefully read the Bible, and I do not so 
understand this Book. I know there is a God, and that He 
hates injustice and slavery. I see the storm coming, and I 
know that His hand is in it. If he has a place and work for 
me — and I think He has — I believe I am ready." In the same 
conversation he said: "I think more on these subjects than 
upon all others, and I have done so for years." ^ 

This absence of sunny certainty must not be taken as a 
repudiation of his Christian standing, but as something that 
belongs to an introspective and self-exacting nature. 

During his administration as President, in a conversation 
with his close personal friend Noah Brooks, Mr. Lincoln said: 
'T am very sure that if I do not go away from here a wiser 
man, I shall go away a better man, for having learned here 
what a very poor sort of a man I am." ® 

"Referring to what he called a change of heart, he said 
he did not remember any precise time when he passed through 

^ Life of Abraham Lincoln, pp. 239-240. 

"f Ibid., pp. 237-238. 

^ Harper's Magazine, 1865, p. 225. 



402 LATEST LIGHT ON ABRAHAM LINCOLN 

any special change of purpose, or of heart ; but he would say, 
that his own election to office, and the crisis immediately fol- 
lowing, influentially determined him in what he called a 'pro- 
cess of crystallization,' then going on in his mind."® 

Respecting these statements, Mr. Brooks says: "Reticent 
as he was, and shy of discoursing much of his own mental 
exercises, these few utterances now have a value with those 
who knew him, which his dying words would scarcely have 
possessed."® 

At one time in conversation with a very prominent Chris- 
tian woman, Mr. Lincoln said: "Mrs. , I have formed 

a very high opinion of your Christian character, and now, as 
we are alone, I have a mind to ask you to give me, in brief, 
your idea of what constitutes a true religious experience." 

After listening attentively to the answer to his question, 
Mr. Lincoln very earnestly said: "If what you have told me 
is really a correct view of this great subject, I think I can 
say with sincerity that I hope I am a Christian. I had lived 
until my boy WilHe died without realizing fully these things. 
That blow overwhelmed me. It showed me my weakness as 
I had never felt it before, and if I can take what you have 
stated as a test, I think I can safely say that I know some- 
thing of that change of which you speak; and I will further 
add, that it has been my intention for some time, at a suitable 
opportunity, to make a public religious profession."^'* 

In publishing Mr. Carpenter's account of this incident. 
Judge Whitney says: "This statement was made to an eminent 
Christian lady, and may be relied on as authentic, and it shows 
conclusively that Abraham Lincoln was a Christian."" 

General Horatio King tells this corroborative incident: 
"Shortly before his death an Illinois clergyman asked Lincoln: 
'Do you love Jesus?' Mr. Lincoln solemnly replied: 'When 
I left Springfield I asked the people to pray for me. I 

» Harper's Magazine, p. 226. 

19 Six Months in the White House, p. 187. 

" Life on the Circuit with Lincoln, p. 281. 



LINCOLN'S RELIGIOUS EXPERIENCE 403 

was not a Christian. When I buried my son, the severest 
trial of my life, I was not a Christian. But when I went to 
Gettysburg and saw the graves of thousands of our soldiers, 
I then and there consecrated myself to Christ. Yes I do love 
Jesus.' "^' 

Mr. O. H. Olroyd reports Mr. Lincoln to have said: "I 
have often wished that I was a more devout man than I am."" 

Dr. P. D. Gurley, Mr. Lincoln's pastor, said, after the 
President's death, in a conversation with Dr. J. A. Reed: "I 
had frequent and intimate conversations with him (Lincoln) 
on the subject of the Bible and the Christian religion when 
he could have no motive to deceive me, and I considered him 
sound not only in the truth of the Christian Religion but in 
all its fundamental doctrines and teachings. And more than 
that: In the latter days of his chastened and weary life, after 
the death of his son Willie and his visit to the battlefield of 
Gettysburg, he said with tears in his eyes that he had lost 
confidence in everything but God, and that he now believed 
his heart was changed and that he loved the Saviour and if 
he was not deceived in himself it was his intention soon to 
make a profession of religion."" 

The foregoing statements by Mr. Lincoln himself and by 
others, tell the story of the progressive experience of a thor- 
oughly sincere and conscientious Christian man. This expe- 
rience was in harmony with the words of the Prophet, "Let us 
know, let us follow on to know the Lord." ^* They came in the 
natural order and sequence described by Jesus in the figure, 
"First the blade, then the ear, then the full corn in the ear."" 
They followed the law of increase indicated in the words, 
"The path of the righteous is as a shining light that shineth 
more and more unto the perfect day."" 

Mr. Lincoln's life during the period covered by these state- 
ments was a progressive experience marked all the way by 
battles and victories, by struggles and achievements, as is the 

12 Christian Work and Evangelist. 

13 Lincoln Album, p. 254. 1* Scribne/s Magazine, July, 1873, p. 339. 
isHos. 6:3. "Mark 4:28. "Prov. 4:18. 



404 LATEST LIGHT ON ABRAHAM LINCOLN 

case with all true Christians. It was a perfectly normal 
Christian experience, orderly in sequence and growth. It was 
like the ever-enlarging experience of Paul from his first vision 
of Jesus near Damascus, when he said, ''Who art thou, Lord?" 
to the time when from his prison at Rome, he sent the fare- 
well testimony: "I am already being offered, and the time 
of my departure is come I have fought the good fight, I 
have finished the course, I have kept the faith: henceforth 
there is laid up for me the crown of righteousness, which the 
Lord, the righteous judge, shall give to me at that day."^^ 

The Hfe of Lincoln, like that of Paul, was one of toil 
and hardship, of sacrifice and suffering; but through it all 
there was an ever-increasing disclosure of divine love and 
compassion, and an ever-deepening experience of divine grace. 
Perhaps in no respect was there a closer similarity in these 
two lives than in the constant increase of their realization 
of the Lord's presence and power, their own consecration to 
His service, and their steady and manifest transformation into 
His character and likeness. Not less laborious than the life 
of Paul was the life of Abraham Lincoln, and not more 
Christlike was Paul's forgiveness of his enemies than was 
Abraham Lincoln's spirit toward those who, without just 
cause, heaped cruel maledictions upon his devoted head. 

And how like the experiences of Mary and Martha were 
the results of Lincoln's heartbreaking grief at the death of 
his beautiful boy. The sisters of Lazarus knew Jesus inti- 
mately before the death of their brother, but they did not 
know and they never could have known His unspeakable pre- 
ciousness without the overwhelming sorrow which came upon 
them and brought Him to their relief. 

Mr. Lincoln may have thought he experienced a change 
of heart when he realized the consolations of divine grace 
at that time of his sore bereavement; and he may have been 
even more fully convinced of his acceptance with God, when 
on the battlefield of Gettysburg he renewed his consecration 

18 2 Tim. 4 : 6-8. 



LINCOLN'S RELIGIOUS EXPERIENCE 405 

to God ; but those who have had large experience in Christian 
hfe fully understand that such events usually are attended by 
a deepening of the soul's conscious need, and a quickening of 
faith that apprehends the Lord's presence and the gracious 
ministrations of His grace. 

The Christian's life is like climbing a mountain, which 
always requires vigorous and persevering effort, and in which 
as we ascend, the area of our vision is constantly enlarged; 
new and beautiful scenes come into view; the atmosphere 
becomes clearer and the ability to see is quickened and made 
more acute by our exertions. 

Very much like this did Mr. Lincoln's religious life rise 
from the comparatively low level of the Bateman Interview 
in i860 to the good confession which he witnessed to Dr. 
Gurley four years later. That was a still greater height when 
he prepared his second inaugural address and soon afterward 
declared that the defeated enemy would be treated by the 
Government with forbearance and kindness. But it should 
not be forgotten that the Bateman Interview was one of the 
way-marks of the journey leading up to the heights of Chris- 
tian attainment which Mr. Lincoln reached. 

But while the Christian world accepts with the utmost 
satisfaction Mr. Lincoln's declarations during the later years 
of his Presidency that he was a Christian and that he had 
consciously experienced the regenerating work of the Spirit 
which he always designated as "a change of heart," it 
needed no testimony from Mr. Lincoln's lips to warrant or 
to strengthen the assurance that he was a devout child of 
God through faith in Jesus Christ. His character and life 
declare him to have been a Christian with greater certainty 
than could any oral or written declaration of a religious ex- 
perience. 

But the world will always be reluctant to believe that 
Abraham Lincoln's Christian }ife began as late as the time 
when he claimed to have experienced a change of heart. His 
statement that he was not a Christian at an earlier date, was 



4o6 LATEST LIGHT ON ABRAHAM LINCOLN 

based upon his lack of a satisfying religious experience. He 
evidently thought that he should be able to state "the precise 
time" when he became a Christian, which only a limited num- 
ber of believers can do. Nor is such knowledge necessary. 
Christian life like natural Hfe has its infancy and youth, and 
the reality of later conscious existence does not depend upon 
our recollection of the beginning of that life. It is enough 
for any one to know that he is now an accepted child of 
God, through faith in Jesus Christ. 

The Restraints of Modesty 

undoubtedly caused Mr. Lincoln to refrain from claiming 
to be a Christian after he had fully complied with all the 
conditions of salvation. 

He was temperamentally inclined to self -depreciation and 
seemed incapable of claiming for himself any personal excel- 
lence or merit. When in 1832 he was first a candidate for 
the legislature, in an exceedingly modest circular to the voters, 
he expressed the fear that he was "more presuming" than was 
becoming, and added: *T was born and have ever remained 
in the most humble walks of life."^^ 

When in 1854 he first decided "to try to be United States 
senator," he wrote Judge Joseph Gillispie requesting his sup- 
port and said: "I know, and acknowledge, that you have 
as just claims to the place as I have, and therefore I cannot 
ask you to yield to me if you are thinking of becoming a 
candidate yourself." '" 

When in 1856 the dispatches stated that in the national 
republican convention he had received a large vote as the nom- 
inee for vice-president, with characteristic modesty he waived 
it aside by saying: "It must have been another Lincoln who 
resides in Massachusetts." 

In 1858 in furnishing data for the publisher of the dic- 

^8 Complete Works of Abraham Lincoln, Vol. I., p. 8. 
20 Ibid., Vol. II., p. 265. 



LINCOLN'S RELIGIOUS EXPERIENCE 407 

tionary of Congress he says of himself: "Education de- 
fective." 

In 1859, after his great debates with Douglas, in a letter 
promising a service requested by Hon. N. B. Judd, he said: 
"I shall attend to it as well as I know how, which, God knows, 
will not be very good." "^ 

A few days later in a letter to J. W. Fell, he explained the 
lack of material in data furnished by him for a biography, by 
saying: "There is not much of it for the reason, I suppose, 
that there is not much of me. If anything be made out 
of it, I wish it to be modest, and not to go beyond the 
material." 

In the data which he furnished with this explanation and 
request, he speaks of his parents as having been born of 
"undistinguished families — second families perhaps I should 
say."" 

Only a few months previous to his nomination at Chicago, 
in reply to urgent requests to become a candidate for the Pres- 
idency, Mr. Lincoln said: "Do you believe that a plain, com- 
mon man, as I am, of the back-river, if not 'back-woods' 
country, is or can be what you so ardently wish I should be, 
a real leader of the people? You surely do not believe that 
I am a great man, but rather that I am an earnest and sincere 
one." '' 

To his Illinois friends who in 1859, after his great de- 
bate with Douglas, insisted upon making him a candidate for 
President he frankly said: "I do not feel that I have reached 
the place in public estimation, nor do I feel that I possess 
the fitness and qualifications to be nominated for and pos- 
sibly be elected President."** 

And after his election as President, in an address to the 
legislature of Ohio, February 13th, 1861, he speaks of him- 

21 Complete Works of Abraham Lincoln, Vol. V., p. 283. 

22 Ibid., p. 287. 

23 Robert Browne, Life of Abraham Lincoln, Vol. IL, p. 192. 
2* Ibid., p. 394- 



4o8 LATEST LIGHT ON ABRAHAM LINCOLN 

self as being, "Without a name, perhaps without a reason 
why" he "should have a name."*' 

During his Presidency, Mr. Lincoln stated to a close friend 
that the story of his life was "like the sentence in Gray's 
Elegy — 'The short and simple annals of the poor.' " 

The beautiful modesty and self-depreciation revealed by 
these disclosures undoubtedly had much to do in causing Mr. 
Lincoln for so long a period to state that he was not a Chris- 
tian, while his life, as judged by friends and enemies alike 
was a living illustration of "pure religion and undefiled before 
our God and Father."^* He felt that to claim to be a Chris- 
tian would be to profess a condition of purity of heart and 
spirit to which he seemed unwarranted in laying claim without 
the most assuring evidence. And unfortunately he sought that 
evidence by inspecting his own heart, a method which usually 
is not reassuring. Indeed, there are few people of Mr. 
Lincoln's absolute honesty and truthfulness who would claim 
to be Christians after rigidly examining their own hearts in 
the light f ' he requirements of Scripture as he undoubtedly 
was ace - tomed to do, especially after his memorable inter- 
view with Dr. Jaquess. Well would it be if all up-struggling 
souls were led to turn their eyes from the inspection of their 
own hearts to a trustful vision of Christ; and to see that a 
claim to belong to the redeemed family of God is not based 
upon feeling but upon faith ; and that the faith through which 
salvation is attained, is based, not upon experience, but upon 
the immutable Word of God. 

But at the very time that Mr. Lincoln disclaimed being 
a Christian, he confidently, and without hesitation, claimed 
that 

He was Chosen of God 

to be the ruler of the nation and to accomplish the great 
work to which he had been called. Judge Whitney says "he 
felt he was commissioned by God to achieve mighty results; 

25 Complete Works of Abraham Lincoln, Vol. VI., p. 121. 
28 James i : 27. 



LINCOLN'S RELIGIOUS EXPERIENCE 409 

... he believed that God ruled the Universe through the 
media of agents and that he was the agent to save the nation 
and to abolish slavery,"" 

A few days before his first election to the Presidency, in 
an interview with Dr. Bateman, already referred to, he stated 
that he believed God had a work for him and he was ready 
for it 

On September 28th, 1862, in reply to an address from the 
Society of 'Friends, Mr. Lincoln speaks of himself as "being 
a humble instrument in the hands of our heavenly Father." ^^ 

In the course of an interview with Rev. Dr. Miner, he 
said: "It has pleased Almighty God to place me in my present 
position, and looking up to Him for guidance I must work 
out my destiny as best I can."^^ 

Dr. Holland, in speaking of Mr. Lincoln's faith in an 
overruling Providence, says: "He believed in his inmost soul 
that he was an instrument in the hands of God for the ac- 
complishment of a great purpose. The power was above him, 
the workers were around him, the end was beyond him. In 
him, Providence, the people and the purpose of both met; and 
its a poor, weak, imperfect man, he felt humbled by the august 
presence and crushed by the importance with which he had 
been endowed."^" 

To Mr. James R. Gilmore, the journalist. President Lin- 
coln said: "God selects his own instruments, ... for in- 
stance, He chose me to steer the ship through a great crisis." " 

Fully Obedient to God's Will 

Believing that he was a called and commissioned agent 
of the Most High, and that he was under definite and 
imperative divine orders Mr. Lincoln was diligent and con- 
stant in his efforts to ascertain and obey the will of God. 

27 Life on the Circuit with Lincoln, p. 276. 

28 Complete Works of Abraham Lincoln, Vol. VIIL, p. 50. 

29 Lincoln Scrap-book, pp. 51-52. "» Life of Abraham Lincoln, p. 235. 
31 Personal Recollections of Abraham Lincoln, p. 158. 



410 LATEST LIGHT ON ABRAHAM LINCOLN 

In reply to a clergyman who ventured to say, in his pres- 
ence, that he "hoped the Lord was on our side," Mr. Lincoln 
said: "I am not at all concerned about that, for I know that 
the Lord is akvays on the side of right. But it is my con- 
stant anxiety and prayer that / and this nation should be on 
the Lord's side."^^ 

The following is peculiarly significant in that its closing 
words rarely appear in any of Mr. Lincoln's pronouncements: 
"I shall in the conscientious discharge of my duty to my 
country and my God, to whom we all owe allegiance, endeavor 
to make the best of it, so help me God."^^ 

In a letter to Caleb Russell and Sallie Fenton, dated Jan- 
uary 5th, 1863, Mr. Lincoln said: 'T am conscious of no 
desire for my country's welfare that is not in consonance 
with His will, and of no plan upon which we may not ask 
His blessing."^* 

In his statements at the White House, a record of which 
is given by the Hon. James F. Wilson, Mr. Lincoln said: "I 
think He means that we shall do more than we have yet done 
in furtherance of His plans, and He will open the way for our 
doing it. I have felt His hand upon me in great trials and 
submitted to His guidance, and I trust that as He shall fur- 
ther open the way I will be ready to walk therein, relying 
on His help and trusting in His goodness and wisdom."^^ 

"Whatever is God's will, that will I do," was the dominant 
feature of Abraham Lincoln's life, and that fact places him 
in the front ranks of the Christian forces regardless of his 
conscious religious experience; for an unsurrendered will is 
the only obstacle that can intervene between any human soul 
and the full favor of God. 

32 Six Months in the White House, p. 282. 

83 Lincoln Scrap-book, pp. 59-62. 

3-1 Complete Works of Abraham Lincoln, Vol. VIIL, p. 174- 

35 North American Review, 1896, p. 667. 



LINCOLN'S RELIGIOUS EXPERIENCE 411 

Christian Trust 

Mr. Lincoln's sublime trust in the Almighty is conclusive 
evidence that he was a Christian. In an address to a com- 
pany of ministers, during the progress of the war, he re- 
marked: "Gentlemen, my hope of success in this struggle rests 
on that immutable foundation, the justness and goodness of 
God."'« 

The following is from the President's annual message 
of December ist, 1862: "And while it has not pleased the 
Almighty to bless us with a return of peace, we can but press 
on guided by the best light He gives us, trusting that in His 
own good time and wise way all will yet be well."" 

That Mr. Lincoln's trust in God never wavered is indi- 
cated by the following from Hon. W. D. Kelley: "During our 
conversation, I said: *Mr. President, don't you think the rebel- 
lion is very nearly at an end ?' 

"He took his spectacles from his brow and raising his 
head, after a pause of a few seconds said: 'I think it is; I 
think it is; but if we have not Divine support and guidance 
there is room yet for us to fail utterly and we will fail. 
. . . You have nothing but Divine support and guidance to 
rely upon. None of us yet comprehend this rebellion and its 
power.' 

"Thus at that time when there seemed to be nothing to 
invoke an expression of that kind his sense of his, and our, 
dependence upon God must have utterance."^® 

That there were times when the President's trust in God 
ripened into full and comforting assurance, is indicated by 
the following from Dr. Robert Browne: "I went over to the 
President's, to see how things were going there. He was 
engaged, but soon found an excuse to retire. When we were 
alone, I saw that a great change had been wrought. He was 

3s Rev. J. A. Reed, Scribner's Magazine, Vol. VI., p. 339. 

37 Complete Works of Abraham Lincoln, Vol. VIII., p. 93. 

38 Eulogies on Lincoln, Scrap-book, Vol. II., p. 2. 



412 LATEST LIGHT ON ABRAHAM LINCOLN 

comparatively at his ease. His face and features, distinctly, 
in smoothed-out lines and cheerful, disclosed a new-born 
hope. He was alive again, and as he grasped my hand firmly, 
I felt that the faith of God was in the man, and that his soul 
was full of it. He stood before me, calm, resolute and deter- 
mined — the Lincoln of other and brighter days. He said: 'I 
am glad you have dropped in. I wanted to see you just 
a few minutes out of the rush about us. But things are going 
all right; we are going to win a victory.' "^^ 

Mr. Oliver S. Munsell, president of Wesleyan University, 
Bloomington, Illinois, had a very pleasing acquaintance with 
Mr. Lincoln which began when he was only fifteen years old 
and continued during the years that followed. In a letter to 
General Chas. C. T. Collis, dated April 15th, 1893, referring 
to his last interview with President Lincoln in the White 
House, Mr. Munsell says: 

"In the course of the conversation I said: 'Mr. Lincoln, 
in our dear old Illinois, of which we have just been talking, 
we are anxious, very anxious, in regard to the issue of this 
terrible war. We have our opinions, our hopes, and our fears. 
And sometimes the suspense is terrible. The thought has come 
to me, as I have talked with you, that you see the whole 
field as no other man sees, or can see it ; and it has awakened 
in me an intense desire to ask you, seeing as you thus do 
see it, will our country come through safe and alive?' 

"Mr. Lincoln in the outset of our interview had seemed 
more worn and depressed than I had ever seen him under any 
circumstances. No sooner had he heard my question, than 
his face clouded with the heavy lines of anxious thought, and 
the shadows again fell around him. 

"He paused a moment before he made any reply, and 
when he did essay to speak he made two ineffectual efforts 
before he could command his voice, and with trembling lips 
and tears trickling down his furrowed cheeks, said: 

" T do not doubt, I never have doubted for a moment, that 
8» Abraham Lincoln and Men of his Time, Vol. II., p. 684. 



LINCOLN'S RELIGIOUS EXPERIENCE 413 

our country would finally come through safe and undivided. 
But do not misunderstand me, I do not know how it can be. 
I do not rely on the patriotism of our people, though no 
people rallied around their king as ours have rallied around me, 
I do not trust in the bravery and devotion of the boys in bhie ; 
God bless them, though! God never gave a prince or con- 
queror such an army as He has given to me. Nor yet do I 
rely on the loyalty and skill of our generals; though, I be- 
lieve, we have the best generals in the world at the head of 
our armies. But the God of our fathers, who raised up this 
country to be the refuge and asylum of the oppressed and 
down-trodden of all nations, will not let it perish now. I 
may not live to see it, and (he added after a moment's pause) 
I do not expect to live to see it, but God will bring us through 
safe.' 

"I felt humbled in the presence of Mr. Lincoln's sublime 
faith in the God of our fathers, . . . which shamed my 
own doubts and fears; and from that hour my faith in the 
ultimate triumph of our country never again faltered, and I 
bade Mr. Lincoln, as it proved, a final farewell, thanking God 
as I had never before thanked Him, for such a leader in our 
country's deadly hour of peril. "^° 

Trust in Time of Trouble 

There were many times when Mr. Lincoln's trust in God 
was put to very severe tests; times when the trend of events 
seemed to indicate that the struggle for the preservation of 
the nation was doomed to failure; times when Mr. Lincoln 
lost confidence in some of his commanding generals and in 
the success of some of his most cherished plans and efforts; 
but there never came a time when his confidence in the ulti- 
mate triumph of right wavered or weakened. The appalling 
Chancellorsville disaster in May, 1863, enshrouded Presi- 
dent Lincoln in the greatest darkness he ever experienced. 

*o General Charles H. T. Collis, The Religion of Abraham Lincoln, p. 15. 



414 LATEST LIGHT ON ABRAHAM LINCOLN 

There was every reason why the Union Army should have 
been victorious, and just as the forces were about to join 
in that fearful struggle, the commanding General gave to 
his army and to the President, assurance that decisive victory 
was certain. The existing conditions which were all thor- 
oughly understood by the President, and the assurance re- 
ceived by him from General Hooker, caused him to be illy 
prepared for the tidings which in due time came, telling 
of the overwhelming defeat, and humiliating retreat, of the 
Union forces. By no pen has the majestic demeanor of the 
President upon that occasion been so graphically depicted as 
by that of Colonel W. O. Stoddard, one of Mr. Lincoln's 
private secretaries: 

"That night, the last visitors in Lincoln's room were Stan- 
ton and Halleck. They went away together in silence, at 
somewhere near nine o'clock, and the President was left alone. 
Not another soul was on that floor except the one secretary, 
who was busy with the mail in his room across the hall from 
the President's; and the doors of both rooms were ajar, for 
the night was warm. The silence was so deep that the 
ticking of a clock would have been noticeable; but another 
sound came that was almost as regular and ceaseless. It was 
the tread of the President's feet as he strode slowly back and 
forth across the chamber in which so many Presidents of the 
United States had done their work. Was he to be the last 
of the line? The last President of the entire United States? 
At that hour that very question had been asked of him by 
the battle of Chancellorsville. If he had wavered, if he had 
failed in faith or courage or prompt decision, then the nation, 
and not the army of the Potomac, would have lost its great 
battle. 

"Ten o'clock came, without a break in the steady march, 
excepting now and then a pause in turning at either wall. 

"Eleven o'clock came, and then another hour of that cease- 
less march so accustomed the ear to it that when, a little 




COLONEL W. O. STODDARD 

One of President Lincoln's private secretaries, still living at Madison, N. J. 
From a photograph presented the author by Colonel Stoddard on June 25, 
1914. 



LINCOLN'S RELIGIOUS EXPERIENCE 415 

after twelve, there was a break of several minutes, the sudden 
silence made one put down the letters and listen. 

"The President may have been at his writing table, or he 
may — no man knows or can guess; but at the end of the 
minutes, long or short, the tramp began again. Two o'clock, 
and he was walking yet, and when, a little after three, the 
secretary's task was done and he slipped noiselessly out, he 
turned at the head of the stairs for a moment. It was so — 
the last sound he heard as he went down was the footfall 
in Lincoln's room. 

'That was not all, however. The young man had need 
to return early, and he was there again before eight o'clock. 
The President's room door was open and he went in. There 
sat Mr. Lincoln eating breakfast alone. He had not been 
out of his room; but there was a kind of cheery, hopeful, 
morning light on his face, instead of the funereal battle-cloud 
from Chancellorsville. He had watched all night, but a dawn 
had come, for beside his cup of coffee lay the written draft 
of his instructions to General Hooker to push forward to 
fight again. There was a decisive battle won that night in 
that long vigil with disaster and despair. Only a few weeks 
later the Army of the Potomac fought it over again as des- 
perately, and they won it, at Gettysburg."^ 



Ml 



Christian Thankfulness 

Nothing more clearly indicates Mr. Lincoln's close and 
constant fellowship with God than his oft-repeated expression 
of personal gratitude for favors which he recognized as com- 
ing from the hand of God. In his annual message of De- 
cember 3rd, 1 86 1, he said: "In the midst of unprecedented 
poHtical troubles we have cause of great gratitude to God for 
unusual good health, and most abundant harvests."*^ 

In his annual message of December 8th, 1863, is the fol- 

*i Abraham Lincoln— Tributes from his Associates, pp. 48-49- 
" Complete Works of Abraham Lincoln, Vol. VIL, p. 28. 



4i6 LATEST LIGHT ON ABRAHAM LINCOLN 

lowing: "Another year of health, and of sufficiently abundant 
harvests, has passed. For these, and especially for the im- 
proved condition of our national affairs, our renewed and 
profoundest gratitude to God is due."*^ 

One year later, in his annual message of December 6th, 
1864, he said: "Again the blessings of health and abundant 
harvests claim our profoundest gratitude to Almighty God." " 

Thanks for Victories 

All who are familiar with the story of Mr. Lincoln's inner 
life know that it was his custom when battles were in progress, 
to retire alone and plead with God for victory. The story of 
his intercessions with God during the Battle of Gettysburg is 
fittingly told in this volume by his own declarations and by 
the achievements of art.* His fervent plea for divine aid 
■ during that memorable struggle indicates his attitude and 
actions upon all similar occasions. 

Mrs. Pomeroy, the Christian nurse, tells us that Mr. Lin- 
coln was engaged in prayer for victory while the battle of 
Port Hudson was in progress, and when news of the victory 
was received and he was told, "There is nothing like prayer," 
he promptly responded, "Yes, there is; prayer and praise go 
together." 

So, on July 4th, 1863, in a proclamation to the nation 
he said: "The President announces to the country that news 
from the Army of the Potomac, up to 10 P. M. of the 3rd, 
is such as to cover that army with the highest honor, to 
promise a great success to the cause of the Union, and to 
claim the condolence of all for the many gallant fallen; and 
that for this he especially desires that on this day He whose 
will, not ours, should ever be done be everywhere remem- 
bered and reverenced with profoundest gratitude."** 

« Complete Works of Abraham Lincoln, Vol. IX., p. 224. 
" Ibid., Vol. X., p. 283. 
* See p. 377. 
*6 Complete Works of Abraham Lincoln, Vol. IX., p. 17. 



LINCOLN'S RELIGIOUS EXPERIENCE 417 

A few days later, to wit, July 15th, 1863, in announcing 
victories in the field, Mr. Lincoln said: "It has pleased Al- 
mighty God to hearken to the supplications and prayers of 
an afflicted people, and to vouchsafe to the army and navy 
of the United States victories on land and on sea so signal 
and so effective as to furnish reasonable grounds for aug- 
mented confidence that the union of these states will be main- 
tained, their Constitution preserved, and their peace and pros- 
perity permanently restored. . . . It is meet and right to 
recognize and confess the presence of the Almighty Father 
and the power of His hand equally in these triumphs and in 
these sorrows. . . . Now, therefore, be it known that 
I do set apart Thursday, the 6th day of August next to . . . 
render the homage due to the Divine Majesty for the won- 
derful things He has done in the nation's behalf."*^ 

A few months later, December 7th, 1863, in announcing 
Union victories in East Tennessee, Mr. Lincoln said: "I rec- 
ommend that all loyal people do, on receipt of this information, 
assemble at their places of worship and render special homage 
and gratitude to Almighty God for this great advancement of 
the national cause."^^ 

On May 9th, 1864, in a proclamation to the nation, he 
said: "To the friends of Union and Liberty: Enough is known 
of army operations within the last five days to claim an 
especial gratitude to God, while what remains undone demands 
our most sincere prayers to, and reliance upon, Him without 
whom all human effort is vain. I recommend that all patriots 
at their homes, in their places of public worship, and wher- 
ever they may be, unite in common Thanksgiving and prayer 
to Almighty God."*' 

On the same day. May 9th, 1864, in response to a ser- 
enade, Mr. Lincoln used the following expressive language: 

** Complete Works of Abraham Lincoln, Vol. IX., p. 32. 

*"! Ibid., p. 218. 

48 Ibid., Vol. X., p. 94. 



4i8 LATEST LIGHT ON ABRAHAM LINCOLN 

"I am indeed very grateful to the brave men who have been 
strnggHng with the enemy in the field, to their noble com- 
manders who have directed them, and especially to our 
Maker."^^ 

And in response to another serenade on that memorable 
9th of May, 1864, Mr. Lincoln said: "While we are grateful 
to all the brave men and officers for the events of the past 
few days, we should above all, be very grateful to Almighty 
God who gives us the victory."^" 

When the news of the downfall of the Confederate Capital 
reached Mr. Lincoln, on board the Malvern, he exclaimed: 
"Thank God that I have lived to see this! It seems to me 
I have been dreaming a horrid dream for four years, and 
now the nightmare is gone. I want to see Richmond."" 

In his last public address, April nth, 1865, in the fol- 
lowing language which was characteristic of all his public life, 
the great ruler said: "We meet this evening not in sorrow, 
but in gladness of heart. The evacuation of Petersburg and 
Richmond, and the surrender of the principal insurgent army, 
give hope for a righteous and speedy peace, whose joyous 
expression cannot be restrained. In the midst of this, how- 
ever. He from whom all blessings flow must not be for- 
gotten."" 

When told of the worshipful regard in which he was held 
by the former slaves, with tearful solemnity President Lincoln 
said: "If I have been one of the instruments in liberating 
tliis long suffering, down-trodden people, I thank God for it." 

Of a similar character was his statement to Colonel 
McKaye of New York and Robert Dale Owen, when they 
told Mr. Lincoln that a white-haired former slave had said 
to his comrades: "Brederin, you don't know nosen' what you'se 
talkin' 'bout. Now, you just listen to me. Massa Linkum, 

*9 Complete Works of Abraham Lincoln, Vol. X., p. 95. 

51 Francis F. Browne, Everyday Life of Lincoln, p. 568. 

52 Complete Works of Abraham Lincoln, Vol. XL, p. 84. 



LINCOLN'S RELIGIOUS EXPERIENCE 419 

he eberywhar. He knows eberyting." Then, solemnly look- 
ing up, he added — "He walk de earf like de Lord !"" 

Mr. Carpenter, the artist, tells us "that Mr. Lincoln seemed 
much affected by this account. He did not smile, as another 
man might have done, but got up from his chair, and walked 
in silence two or three times across the floor. As he resumed 
his seat, he said, very impressively: "It is a momentous thing 
to be the instrument, under Providence, of the liberation of 
a race."^* 

Thankful for Re-election 

Properly to appreciate Mr. Lincoln's gratitude for his re- 
election in 1864, it should be remembered that on August 
23rd of that year he wrote his memorable statement expressing 
the conviction that the election in the coming November would 
be adverse to his administration. As elsewhere stated in this 
volume, there was such a tremendous popular demand for a 
cessation of hostilities throughout the loyal states that the 
election undoubtedly would have resulted in Mr. Lincoln's 
defeat if the claim of the opposition that the South was ready 
to return to the Union had not been shown to be false by 
the declaration of Jefferson Davis that nothing short of inde- 
pendence would be accepted by the South. This declaration 
of the Confederate leader made public, and widely distrib- 
uted throughout the loyal states just previous to the election 
undoubtedly gave Mr. Lincoln the meager majority of the pop- 
ular vote which resulted in an overwhelming majority in the 
electoral college. Having passed through that strenuous cam- 
paign in which he was unjustly opposed and cruelly vilified 
by leaders of his own party, and having been wrought up to 
the conviction which caused his serious and settled apprehen- 
sion of defeat, Mr. Lincoln's gratitude for re-election found 
expression in some of the most beautiful utterances of his 
life. 

On the evening of November 9th, 1864, in response to 

S3 Six Months in the White House, p. 209. ^4 ibid., p. 209. 



420 LATEST LIGHT ON ABRAHAM LINCOLN 

a serenade of congratulation upon his re-election, with char- 
acteristic modesty and heartfelt appreciation he said: "I 
am thankful to God for this approval of the people ; but 
while deeply grateful for this mark of their confidence in me, 
if I know my heart, my gratitude is free from any taint of 
personal triumph. I do not impugn the motives of any one 
opposed to me. It is no pleasure to me to triumph over any 
one, but I give thanks to the Almighty for this evidence of 
the people's resolution to stand by free government and the 
rights of humanity."" 

On the next evening, November loth, 1864, upon a like 
occasion, he expressed his recognition of the hand of God 
in his re-election as follows: "While I am deeply sensible 
to the high compliment of a re-election, and deeply grateful, as 
I trust, to Almighty God, for having directed my country- 
men to a right conclusion, as I think, for their own good, 
it adds nothing to my satisfaction that any other man may 
be disappointed or pained by the result."^* 

According to the provisions of the constitution, the ver- 
dict of the people at the polls was officially canvassed by a 
joint convention of the two houses of Congress on the gth 
of February, 1865. At that time in response to the noti- 
fication by a committee of Congress of the result of the 
electoral vote, Mr. Lincoln said: "With deep gratitude to my 
countrymen for this mark of their confidence . . . and 
above all with an unshaken faith in the Supreme Ruler of 
nations, I accept this trust."" 

Prepared for Death 

That the work of divine grace in a trusting, obedient soul, 
includes preparation for death and for the future life was 
accepted by Mr. Lincoln as unquestionably true. He regarded 
such a work as of piiceless value, and therefore, on February 

'5 Complete Works of Abraham Lincoln, Vol. X., p. 262. 
'8 Ibid., pp. 264-265. 
"Ibid., Vol. XL, p. 10. 



LINCOLN'S RELIGIOUS EXPERIENCE 421 

3rd, 1842, he wrote to his friend, Joshua F. Speed, whose 
wife at the time was seriously ill, stating that if she should 
be called away by death it would be "a great consolation to 
know that she is so well prepared to meet it."^® 

At the time Mr. Lincoln thus expressed his high estimate 
of a conscious preparation for death, and of a religious ex- 
perience in making that preparation, he was in the prime of 
his young manhood, only thirty-three years of age, and was 
writing to his close friend for the purpose of contributing in 
largest possible measure to that friend's consolation in the 
sorrow of apprehended bereavement. 

In a letter written in January, 1 851, he reminded his dying 
father of the assurances of divine compassion and of the 
future life which are adapted to minister consolation in such 
an hour. 

With the realization of human need of a preparation for 
death which is clearly indicated, Mr. Lincoln, on the 22nd 
day of February, 1861, while on his way to Washington to 
assume the duties of the Presidency, in a speech at Indepen- 
dence Hall, Philadelphia, among other things stated: "I have 
said nothing but what I am willing to live by, and if it be 
the pleasure of Almighty God, to die by."^^ 

At another time he remarked: "I do not consider that I 
have ever accomplished anything without God, and if it be 
His will that I must die by the hand of an assassin, I must 
be resigned. I must do my duty as I see it and leave the 
rest with God."«° 

During his administration as President, in speaking of 
well known plots against his life, he said: "But I see no 
other safeguard against these murderers, but to be always 
ready to die, as Christ advises it."^^ 

At a time of high exhilaration, in contemplation of duty 

58 Complete Works of Abraham Lincoln, Vol. I., p. 186. 

59 Ibid., Vol. VI., p. 158. 

«o H. C. Whitney, Life on the Circuit with Lincoln, p. 278. 
«i Fifty Years in the Church of Rome, pp. 706-711. 



422 LATEST LIGHT ON ABRAHAINI LINCOLN 

and danger, Mr. Lincoln stated: 'T am in God's hands; let 
Him do with me what seemeth good to Him."*^' 

In the words of no earthly ruler known to history is there 
found more of potential pathos than the following: "Now I 
see the end of this terrible conflict, with the same joy of 
Moses, when at the end of his trying forty years in the 
wilderness; and I pray my God to grant me to see the 
days of peace and untold prosperity, which will follow this 
cruel war, as Moses asked God to see the other side of 
Jordan, and enter the promised land. But, do you know, 
that I hear in my soul, as the voice of God, giving me the 
rebuke which was given to Moses? 

"Yes, every time that my soul goes to God to ask the favor 
of seeing the other side of the Jordan, and eating the fruits 
of that peace, after which I am longing with such an un- 
speakable desire, do you know that there is a still but solemn 
voice which tells me that I will see those things only from 
a long distance, and that I will be among the dead when the 
nation, which God granted me to lead through those awful 
trials, will cross the Jordan, and dwell in that land of 
promise."*^^ 

In connection with the above statements to Father Chi- 
niquy, Mr. Lincoln expressed his conviction that he would be 
the victim of assassination, and added: 

"So many plots already have been made against my life 
that it is really a miracle that they have all failed." This 
Mr. Lincoln considered the more remarkable because, as he 
at that time said and as the world now knows, those plots 
"were in the hands of skilled murderers evidently trained" by 
his implacable enemies. "But," he said, "can we expect that 
God will make a perpetual miracle to save my life? I believe 
not." And with deep feeling he added: "I hope and pray that 
He will hear no murmur from me when I fall for my nation's 
sake." Those solemn words were spoken when Mr. Lincoln 

^2 W. M. Thayer, From Pioneer Home to White House, p. 352. 
®3 Fifty Years in the Church of Rome, pp. 706-71 1. 



LINCOLN'S RELIGIOUS EXPERIENCE 423 

knew the dogs of death were on his track, eager to overtake 
him. No man ever occupied the Presidential office so beset 
and pursued by dangers as he was. And the apprehension of 
the uhimate success of the plots against his life did not arise 
wholly from his knowledge of the murderous hatred of some 
who, at that time, were seeking to overthrow the nation. 

Mr. Lincoln fully understood, as the world has since 
learned, that bitter enmities had been aroused against him 
by certain features of his law practice in Illinois, and that 
those enmities had grown more bitter, vindictive and unscru- 
pulous with the progress of time. The way from Springfield 
to Washington was thickly set with perils which he avoided 
only by constant vigilance and heroic action. Malignant ene- 
mies gnashed their teeth in rage when, by an unexpected 
midnight dash, he reached the capital city notwithstanding 
their infamous purposes and plots to terminate his life at 
Baltimore. 

And Mr. Lincoln was fully cognizant of the fact that 
his first inauguration was successfully conducted because the 
most skillful and ample preparation had been made to protect 
him from assassination at that time. The world did not 
then know, but Mr, Lincoln did, that all the space where 
enemies might seek to conceal bombs, in the basement of the 
Capitol and in other places of the building, was guarded by 
men thoroughly organized and armed to guard him and effec- 
tually to crush the incipient rebellion some enemies of the 
nation had planned to start during the inaugural ceremonies. 

Mr. Lincoln further knew that the shot, which on a dark 
night sent a bullet through his hat, just above his head, as 
he was riding alone to the Soldiers' Home, was fired by an 
enemy who was seeking his life.* He knew that his personal 
enemies had joined forces with the enemies of his country, 
and were untiring in efforts to kill him, and he was appre- 

* See p. 532. 



424 LATEST LIGHT ON ABRAHAM LINCOLN 

hensive they would accomplish their purpose. Yet, in spite 
of all this he solemnly declared himself to be always prepared 
for death, which certainly implied that he was a Christian. 

Claimed Christian Privileges 

The self-depreciation which for years caused Mr. Lincoln 
to refrain from claiming that he was a Christian did not 
prevent him from exercising the Christian's sacred privilege 
of prayer. During all of his Presidency, according to his 
own statements, he was a daily visitant at the Mercy-seat 
where the sweet incense of his prayers ascended to the throne 
of God. He tells us that sometimes his daily prayer would 
consist of not more than ten words "but those words were 
always uttered." That daily communion led to special sea- 
sons of fervent intercession at crisis periods, when he wrought 
mightily in prayer with God for the nation, as did Moses for 
ancient Israel, even to the extent of remonstrating with Je- 
hovah on behalf of his own cause when He seemed inclined 
to turn from His chosen people. Moses was on such terms 
with God that he ventured to interpose for the safeguarding 
of His honor and renown.^* Jeremiah was so devoted to the 
Lord that he boldly said: "Do not disgrace the throne of Thy 
glory,"^° and Abraham Lincoln was not less jealous for God's 
honor when during the progress of the battle of Gettysburg, 
he told the Lord that the nation's cause "was His cause." 

Such loving loyalty to God and such zeal in interceding 
for His cause, and in safeguarding His honor are indicative 
of a high state of grace. And the "solemn vow" which Mr. 
Lincoln made on that memorable occasion, embraced all that 
is included in full Christian consecration, and was sealed by 
his declaration, "And He did stand by you boys, and I zvill 
stand by Him." That agonizing intercession and that sacred 
covenant with God were followed, as he tells us, by "a 
sweet peace" which gave assurance to his satisfaction that 

**Num. 13:14-19. "Jer. 14:21. 



LINCOLN'S RELIGIOUS EXPERIENCE 425 

his prayer was answered, and bears witness to all the attentive 
world that he was on terms of intimate fellowship with the 
Almighty. 

It is natural for the human heart to cry out to God for 
help at times of sore distress and need, but a consciousness 
of access to a throne of grace and a satisfying assurance of 
acceptance, such as Mr. Lincoln had, are the privileges of none 
but those who are children of God by faith in Jesus Christ. 

The strongest and indeed the conclusive evidence that 
Abraham Lincoln was a Christian was his 



Christian Character and Life 

Attorney General Bates, while a member of his Cabinet, 
said: "Mr. Lincoln comes very near being a perfect man." 

Secretary Seward declared Mr. Lincoln to be the best man 
he had ever known. 

F. B. Carpenter, the artist, declared that Mr. Lincoln's 
conversation was always absolutely pure and proper. 

Dr. Stone, his family physician, said: "I affirm that Mr. 
Lincoln is the purest hearted man with whom I ever came in 
contact." 

Father Chiniquy said: "I found him the most perfect type 
of Christian I ever met." 

"His public life was a continuous service of God and 
his fellowmen controlled and guided by the Golden Rule," 
was the declaration of Hon. L. E. Chittenden. 

Dr. J. G. Holland says: "Moderate, frank, truthful, gentle, 
forgiving, loving, just, Mr. Lincoln will always be remem- 
bered as eminently a Christian President." 

Hon. J. D. Long declared that "no act of his life was 
ever counted in derogation of the integrity of his life and 
example." 

Sir Edward Mallet was proud to say "he left upon me the 
impression of a sterling son of God." 

The Monitor, a Catholic organ published at San Francisco, 



426 LATEST LIGHT ON ABRAHAM LINCOLN 

spenks of "his pre-eminently Christian character" and declares 
that he was "at all times a sincere and consistent follower of 
the gentle Nazafene, and first and foremost a Christian man." 

"His spirit was that of one who communed with the Most 
High," said the distinguished statesman and author, Hon. 
Wm. H. Smith. 

None knew Mr. Lincoln more intimately than did Judge 
Henry C. Whitney, who says: "More than any other man in 
modern life he completely fulfilled the requirement and justi- 
fied the asseveration that 'Pure religion and undefiled before 
God and the Father is this, to visit the fatherless and widow 
in their affliction and to keep himself unspotted from the 
world." 

Major J. B. Merwin, who was closely associated with Mr. 
Lincoln for many years, says: "He came to be one of the most 
profoundly Christian men I ever knew." 

Former President Roosevelt says: "If ever there was a 
man who practically applied what is taught in our churches 
it was Abraham Lincoln." 

John Lothrop Motley says: "Never was such vast political 
power placed in purer hands; never did a heart remain more 
humble and unsophisticated after the highest prizes of earthly 
ambition had been attained." 

This testimony to Mr. Lincoln's Christian character and 
life, which might be indefinitely enlarged, is fittingly closed 
by the declaration of Hon. John Hay, one of his private 
secretaries, that Abraham Lincoln was "one of the most de- 
voted and faithful servants of Almighty God who ever sat 
in the highest places of the world. He was the greatest man 
since Christ." 

Home and Family Life 

In his home life, Abraham Lincoln gave strong evidence 
of his high-toned, Christian character. Never was there a 
more loyal and loving husband, or a more devoted father 
than he. His ardent attachment to his wife is mentioned at 







pi! 



LINCOLN'S RELIGIOUS EXPERIENCE 427 

length elsewhere in this volume. The following statement by 
the Hon. W. D. Kelley of Pennsylvania, gives an added touch 
to the faithful representation of a home and family scene in 
the famous picture of "Tad" and his father, referred to below: 

"His intercourse with his family was beautiful as that with 
his friends. I think that father never loved his children more 
fondly than he. The President never seemed grander in 
my sight than when, stealing upon him in the evening, I 
would find him with a book open before him, as he is rep- 
resented in the popular photograph, with little Tad' beside 
him. There were of course a great many curious books sent 
to him, and it seemed to be one of the special delights of 
his life to open those books at such an hour, that his boy 
could stand beside him, and they could talk as he turned over 
the pages, the father thus giving to the son a portion of 
that care and attention of which he was ordinarily deprived 
by the duties of office pressing upon him."®^ 

As indicating that this fellowship between Mr. Lincoln and 
his little son extended also to the perusal of the pages of 
the Scripture and was of frequent occurrence, the following 
is significant: "Captain Mix, being for a time in charge of 
President Lincoln's bodyguard, was upon terms of very close 
intimacy with the President. He saw him when others did 
not, and he saw him many times as he was not seen by 
others. So close were his relations with the President and 
his family that the Captain often took breakfast with them 
at their summer residence at the Soldiers' Home. This fact, 
and the high character of Captain Mix, give peculiar force 
to the following statement by him: 'Many times have I lis- 
tened to our most eloquent preachers, but never with the same 
feeling of awe and reverence as when our Christian President, 
with his arm around his son, with his deep, earnest tone, each 
morning read a chapter from the Bible.' " "^ 

Mrs. Pomeroy, as nurse, ministered to the afflicted mem- 
os Six Months in the White House, pp. 92-93- 
"Ibid., p. 261. 



428 LATEST LIGHT ON ABRAHAM LINCOLN 

bers of the President's family for several months and the 
great depth to which Mr. Lincoln was moved by his affection 
for the members of his family, and by the bereavement through 
which he passed, is indicated by the following: 

"On arriving at the Executive Mansion, Miss Dix con- 
ducted her into the green room, where the lifeless remains 
of Willie had just been laid out. Thence, she was taken 
to Mrs. Lincoln's chamber, where she was lying quite sick. 
From Mrs. Lincoln's room she was led into an adjoining 
one where little 'Tad' lay in a dying condition. The phy- 
sicians had relinquished all hope of his recovery and he was 
not expected to live twenty-four hours. Mr. Lincoln was 
sitting by him, 'the very picture of despair.' 'Mrs. Pom- 
eroy, Mr. President,' said Miss Dix. Mr. Lincoln arose, 
and very heartily shook her hand, saying: *I am glad to see 
you; I have heard of you. You have come to a sad house.' 
His deep emotion choked further utterance and the tears 
streamed down his careworn cheeks."®^ 

"Several weeks after the death of Willie, Mr. Lincoln, 
with several members of his Cabinet, spent a few days at 
Fortress Monroe, watching military operations upon the Pen- 
insula. He improved his spare time there in reading Shake- 
speare. One day he was reading 'Hamlet' when he called to 
his private secretary: 'Come here. Colonel; I want to read you 
a passage.' The Colonel responded, when the President read 
the discussion on ambition between Hamlet and his courtiers, 
and the soliloquy in which conscience debates about a future 
state. Then he read passages from 'Macbeth,' and finally 
opened to the third act of 'King John,' where Constance 
bewails her lost boy. Closing the book, and recalling the 
words: 

" 'And, father cardinal, I have heard you say 

That we shall see and know our friends in heaven ; 
If that be true I shall see my boy again,' 

«8 William M. Thayer, From Pioneer Home to White House, p. 346. 



LINCOLN'S RELIGIOUS EXPERIENCE 429 

Mr. Lincoln said: 'Colonel, did you ever dream of a lost 
friend, and feel that you were holding sweet communion with 
that friend, and yet have a sad consciousness that it was not 
reality? — just so I dream of my boy Willie.' Overcome with 
emotion, he dropped his head on the table and sobbed aloud. 

"Beautiful example of paternal love in the highest place of 
the land! The million of fathers over whom he ruled found 
in him a worthy father to imitate. "^^ 

Few children ever more deeply interested mankind than 
did dear little "Tad," President Lincoln's youngest son. 
After the death of Willie the little fellow crept into his 
father's life in a marvelous measure. Tearfully touching is 
the story told of the nights when the careworn and weary 
ruler, while seeking the rest he sorely needed, would hear 
a familiar tap upon his chamber door and answering would 
find his darling boy waiting outside to feel his father's loving 
embraces and to cuddle up to him in bed where he would 
remain until morning. Such incidents were common during 
those months in the White House, and none but those with 
a flinty heart can read with tearless eyes the following by F. 
B. Carpenter: 

"Little Tad's' frantic grief upon being told that his father 
had been shot was alluded to in the Washington correspond- 
ence of the time. For twenty-four hours the little fellow was 
perfectly inconsolable. Sunday morning, however, the sun 
rose in unclouded splendor, and in his simplicity he looked 
upon this as a token that his father was happy. 'Do you 
think my father has gone to heaven?' he asked of a gentle- 
man who had called upon Mrs. Lincoln. T have not a doubt 
of it,' was the reply. Then,' he exclaimed, in his broken 
way, *I am glad he has gone there, for he never was happy 
after he came here. This was not a good place for him !' """^ 

69 William M. Thayer, From Pioneer Home to White House, pp. 356-357- 

70 Six Months in the White House, p. 29J. 



430 LATEST LIGHT ON ABRAHAM LINCOLN 

Why not a Church Member 

"Blessed be God who in this our great trial giveth us the 
Churches." This very expressive utterance, made in response 
to the greetings of a company of ministers, indicates Mr. 
Lincoln's ardent affection for the Christian church in all its 
branches, and his high appreciation of its influence for good. 
There are many similar declarations by Mr. Lincoln of the 
same import and equally clear and emphatic. And yet ardent 
as was his attachment to the church, unequivocal as was his 
belief in its divine origin, faithful as was his attendance upon 
its services, liberal as were his contributions to its work, and 
steadfast as was his purpose to live in accordance with its 
requirements and teachings, Mr. Lincoln never became a 
church member. There were two things either one of which 
was in itself sufficient to prevent him from uniting with the 
Church. The first was 

Lengthy and Objectionable Creeds. 

Respecting this Hon. H. C. Deming says: "I am here re- 
minded of an impressive remark which he made to me and 
which I shall never forget. He said he had never united 
himself to any church because he found difficulty in giving his 
assent without mental reservation to the long, complicated 
statement of Christian doctrine which characterized their 
articles of belief and confessions of faith. 'When any church, 
he said, will inscribe over its altar as its sole qualification 
for membership the Saviour's condensed statement of the sub- 
stance of both law and gospel, 'Thou shalt love the Lord 
thy God with all thy heart and with all thy soul and with 
all thy mind, and thy neighbor as thyself,' that church will I 
join with all my heart and with all my soul."" 

To his pastor. Dr. P. D. Gurley, and to others, Mr. Lin- 

^1 Henry Champion Deming, Eulogy on Lincoln, before the General As- 
sembly, Hartford, Conn., Tune 8th, 1865. 



LINCOLN'S RELIGIOUS EXPERIENCE 431 

coin made declarations identical in significance and almost 
identical in language. In the Deming interview he does not 
express any objection to the doctrines of the church, but to 
what he designates "the long, complicated statements" of 
those doctrines. His ow^i declarations, already quoted, prove 
conclusively that he was a firm believer in all the essential 
doctrines of Christianity; but he could not accept those doc- 
trines as stated in church symbols. In this he was doubtless 
in harmony with a large and growing sentiment in the church, 
as is shown by the great labor which during recent years it 
has bestowed upon the work of changing the statements of 
its doctrines so as to remove all needlessly objectionable fea- 
tures. And the great progress made in this revision of church 
symbols, since the foregoing statements were made by Mr. 
Lincoln, fully justifies his objection to the manner in which 
Christian doctrines at that time were stated. His course in 
this matter was characteristic of his prevailing attitude and 
shows the unusual extent to which he was governed by his 
conscientious regard for absolute truthfulness. He knew that 
the "sole qualification for membership" in the Presbyterian 
Church, which he regularly attended, was trusting obedience 
to Christ, but in his estimation such membership included an 
acceptance of all the doctrinal declarations of the church sym- 
bols, and he was unwilling to appear as approving even with 
"mental reservation" doctrinal statements which he did not 
fully accept. He did without scruple take an oath to support 
the Constitution of the United States, which permitted and 
protected slavery, but he regarded the covenant of church 
membership as too peculiarly sacred to be taken without full 
and unqualified approval of all the doctrines held and taught 
by that organization. 

Mr. Lincoln's declaration of his willingness, with all his 
heart and soul, to unite with a church having no condition of 
membership but supreme love for God and for mankind, indi- 
cates his high estimate of Christian living. That his standard 
is higher than are the conditions of membership in any church, 



432 LATEST LIGHT ON ABRAHAM LINCOLN 

and is far above the possibility of human compliance, does 
not to any extent weaken the force of his belief that it 
should be the aim and effort of every Christian to attain unto 
that standard, and that nothing more or less than that should 
be required for membership in the church. This candid ex- 
planation by Mr. Lincoln of the reason why he never became 
a church member is an eloquent plea for greater brevity and 
simplicity in church symbols. Church creeds usually have been 
formulated at times of strife, and in the white heat of con- 
troversy. In many cases they have proved a barrier to church 
membership as they did to Mr. Lincoln even after his faith, 
experience, and life had given assurance that he was a Chris- 
tian. We shall lose one of the most important lessons of 
his life if we fail duly to consider its bearings upon this 
question. 

Quite as potential as were lengthy and objectionable creeds 
in keeping Mr. Lincoln from becoming a church member was 

Church Tolerance of Slavery. 

*'If slavery is not wrong, nothing is wrong. I cannot 
remember when I did not so think and feel." This declara- 
tion of Mr. Lincoln, made in 1864, and already cited, expresses 
his lifelong convictions and feelings toward slavery. 

On the ist of July, 1854, he carefully wrote two "Frag- 
ments" in which he expressed his convictions concerning that 
institution. In one of these, he characterized slavery as "the 
great durable curse of the race," by which labor is made "the 
double-refined curse of God upon His creatures."^" 

His constant claim that slavery should be abolished 
"wherever our votes can legally reach it" was based upon 
his conviction that slavery was morally wrong. So deep was 
his realization of its evil character, and so dominant in his 
soul was the conviction that it should be unyieldingly opposed 
that at the seeming sacrifice of every personal ambition he 

^2 Complete Works of Abraham Lincoln, Vol. II., p. 185. 



LINCOLN'S RELIGIOUS EXPERIENCE 433 

fought it with rehgious vehemence and determination. In 
view of the extent to which slavery was entrenched and the 
strength and determination with which it was and would be 
defended, he exclaimed: "The problem is too mighty for me 
— may God in His mercy superintend the solution." " 

This impassioned appeal to God shows conclusively that 
Mr. Lincoln's opposition to slavery was prompted by the 
highest Christian motives. Believing, as he did, that slavery 
was inherently wrong he appealed to the Almighty for aid 
and direction in opposing and resisting it. And he naturally 
and rightfully looked to the church and to Christians for 
sympathy and co-operation in his warfare against that wrong. 

But instead of finding the sympathy and aid which he 
believed he should receive from the church and from Chris- 
tian people, he found the church in all the slave-holding states 
filled and ruled by slave holders, and in the free states having 
a large and influential pro-slavery membership. During the 
early years here referred to churches had not divided on the 
slavery question as they did later, but maintained organic unity 
throughout the nation. In all the slave states slave holders 
were in absolute control of the church, and did not permit any 
church influence in opposition to slavery. No word against 
slavery was permitted in any pulpit of the South, and, as Mr. 
Lincoln said in i860, "the very teachers of religion have come 
to defend it from the Bible and to claim for it a divine char- 
acter and sanction."^* 

No antislavery articles appeared in any church paper 
published in the slave states and no deliverance of the church 
councils, conferences, or assemblies in those states contained 
any declaration unfriendly to slavery. In the free states the 
pro-slavery element in the principal churches was strong and 
aggressive and excluded antislavery teachings from the pulpit 
and from church organs and deliverances. It was declared 
to be "preaching politics" for ministers to speak against 

73 Complete Works of Abraham Lincoln, Vol. II., p. 280. 
'* Holland's Abraham Lincoln, p. 238. 



434 LATEST LIGHT ON ABRAHAM LINCOLN 

slavery in their sermons, and that was forbidden and effect- 
ively prohibited. The exclusion of slave holders from church 
membership by some of the smaller churches, and the anti- 
slavery views of some people in other churches, in Mr. Lin- 
coln's opinion, accentuated the enormity of church tolerance 
of slavery. 

A still stronger influence in making conspicuous the pro- 
slavery attitude of the church was the open espousal of the 
antislavery cause by people not connected with the evangelical 
churches. The great abolitionists, Garrison and Phillips, with 
their less distinguished associates, were not church people, and 
their courage and fervor in denouncing and resisting slavery 
caused the attitude of the church to that institution to appear 
very objectionable to Mr. Lincoln. There was, as he believed 
and said, a "moral aspect" to the slavery question which 
made imperative the duty of the church and of its entire 
membership to oppose it. Politically he could and did submit 
to the continuance of slavery in the states where it existed, 
for it was there under the protection of the national Consti- 
tution, for which he had the most profound reverence; but 
religiously he could not regard slavery otherwise than with 
unqualified disapproval. While he believed the government 
was solemnly bound by the Constitution to protect slavery 
where it then existed, he also believed that the church was 
more solemnly bound by the requirements of Christianity to 
protest against it as inherently wrong and to seek its de- 
struction. Therefore, the pro-slavery attitude of the church 
and of many Christian people was so at variance with Mr. 
Lincoln's convictions as to be to him an insuperable obstacle 
to church membership. He regarded the sacred covenants of 
church membership as including an approval of the attitude 
of the church to slavery, and that approval his absolute truth- 
fulness made it impossible for him to give. His course in this 
matter was like that of vast numbers of other high-minded 
antislavery people. Thousands of Christian people withdrew 
from the church because of its attitude to slavery; and for 



LINCOLN'S RELIGIOUS EXPERIENCE 435 

the same reason multitudes refused to become church mem- 
bers. Many brilliant preachers renounced their ministerial 
standing and went from the pulpit to the platform that they 
might with unrestrained freedom denounce slavery, and the 
pro-slavery attitude of the church. An antislavery pamphlet 
bore the title, "The Brotherhood of Thieves," as a designa- 
tion of the connivance of church people with slavery, and 
the land was flooded with literature of a similar character. 
This extreme hostility to the church because of its attitude 
to slavery, was never shared by Mr. Lincoln; but his protest 
against the attitude of the church toward slavery was effect- 
ively though silently registered in the profoundly significant 
absence of his name from the roll of church communicants. 

It was characteristic of Mr. Lincoln to remain silent rel- 
ative to these matters, but there came a time when his long- 
suppressed feelings found expression in a manner which could 
not be misunderstood. He had long and patiently fought 
against the cohorts of slavery without one word of com- 
plaint because many church people were arrayed against him, 
but when he first learned that of the twenty-three pastors of 
his home city, only three were supporting him as a candidate 
for President, he was filled with amazement and grief, which 
found expression in language more vehement than he is known 
to have employed at any other time, and in actions more 
expressive of agitation than were exhibited by him upon any 
other occasion during his life. This was at the historic Bate- 
man interview, a full account of which appears elsewhere in 
this work. During that interview, as Dr. Holland tells us, 
Mr. Lincoln "arose and walked up and down the room in 
the effort to retain or regain his self-possession," and when 
he spoke it was "with a trembling voice and cheeks wet with 
tears." "Here," said he, "are twenty-three ministers of dif- 
ferent denominations and all of them are against me but three, 
and here are a great many prominent members of the churches, 
a very large majority of whom are against me. . . . These 
men well know that I am for freedom . . . and that my 



436 LATEST LIGHT ON ABRAHAM LINCOLN 

opponents are for slavery . . . and yet with this Book 
(the New Testament) in their hands in the light of which 
human bondage cannot live a moment, they are going to vote 
against me. I do not understand it at all." ^^ 

Dr. Holland adds: "Everything he said was of a pecu- 
liarly deep, tender and religious tone and all was tinged with 
a touching melancholy."^*' 

Mr. Lincoln's great agitation during this interview was a 
revelation to Dr. Bateman. He had never before seen him 
so disturbed and grieved. He was usually calm and serene 
and never was he so manifestly perturbed as upon this occa- 
sion. It was late in October, i860, only a few days before 
his first election as President, and the outlook at that time 
was assuring. The "October States," as they were then called, 
Pennsylvania, Ohio and others — had held elections for state 
officers giving large republican majorities which indicated that 
Mr. Lincoln's selection in November was certain. There was, 
therefore, every reason for his being in a state of exhilara- 
tion concerning his own aspirations and prospects, and the 
success of the cause he was seeking to promote. He was 
not in the least disturbed by the knowledge that some of his 
neighbors, though devoted personal friends, were adherents 
of the opposing party and would therefore vote against him. 
But the opposition of the church, as represented by its pastors 
and leading members, was unspeakably painful and disturbing 
to him. As far as known he had never before expressed or 
intimated a thought that he had a special and valid claim 
upon the support of church people. As a Whig he stood for 
issues which had no moral or religious features, but when 
the slavery question became a political issue he believed the 
Christian people as a unit should be on the side of freedom. 
As Dr. Holland says: "Of one thing Mr. Lincoln felt sure 
that in the great struggle before him he ought to be supported 
by the Christian sentiment and the Christian influence of 
the nation. Nothing pained him more than the thought that 
""^ Holland's Life of Abraham Lincoln, p. 237. " Ibid., p. 238. 



LINCOLN'S RELIGIOUS EXPERIENCE 437 

a man professing the religion of Jesus Christ, and especially 
a man who taught the religion of Jesus Christ, should be 
opposed to him. He felt that every religious man — every 
man who believed in God, in the principles of everlasting 
justice, in truth and righteousness — should be opposed to 
slavery, and should support and assist him in the struggle 
against inhumanity and oppression which he felt to be immi- 
nent. It was to him a great mystery how those who preached 
the gospel to the poor, and who, by their divine Master, were 
sent to heal the broken-hearted, to preach deliverance to the 
captives and to set at liberty those that were bruised, could be 
his opponents, and enemies." " 

Nor was Mr. Lincoln's agitation at the Bateman interview 
when he learned that the recognized representatives of the 
church were against him, caused by any feelings of wounded 
personal pride, but by the disappointment of his confident 
expectations respecting the fidelity of Christian people to their 
sacred trust. So exalted were his conceptions of the char- 
acter and mission of the church that when he found it in 
what he regarded as manifest apostasy, his heart was sorely 
troubled. He loved the church as God's agency in the world to 
safeguard human rights and to promote human welfare, and 
his soul cried out in anguish in view of its unfaithfulness. 

To this was added his painful apprehension that the pro- 
slavery attitude of pastors and their people would bring upon 
the nation the swift and severe judgments of the Almighty. 
It was this apprehension which wrung from his aching heart 
the prophetic exclamation, "Now the cup of iniquity is full 
and the vials of wrath will be poured out." 

That conditions in the church at that crisis period were 
such as to cause Mr. Lincoln bitter disappointment and grief, 
must be to every follower of Christ an occasion for humilia- 
tion and regret. And in the scenes connected with the Bate- 
man interview, and in the absence of Mr. Lincoln's name 
from the enrollment of the members of the church, is a very 
^■^ Life of Abraham Lincoln, pp. 235-236. 



438 LATEST LIGHT ON ABRAHAM LINCOLN 

solemn admonition to the church ever and boldly to maintain 
its divinely appointed attitude to the cause of righteousness 
among the children of men. How many Christian people of 
great worth have been kept out of the church by the unfaith- 
fulness of God's people to questions and movements of moral 
and civic reform ! 

However, after the first assault upon the flag at Fort Sum- 
ter there was no longer occasion for humiliation on account of 
the condition and attitude of the church in the loyal states. 
Treason unmasked slavery and revealed it in its true char- 
acter, and the antislavery membership of the churches in the 
North at once rose to dominance, and pro-slavery influences 
disappeared. Enthusiastic religious patriotism characterized 
all the services of the church, and from pulpit and pew brave 
Christian men promptly responded to the call for troops. 

Slavery and rebellion at once became identical in public 
thought and the church responded magnificently to the require- 
ments of the occasion. Many times during his administration 
President Lincoln expressed his appreciation of the church 
and his gratification at the services it rendered the govern- 
ment. 

The convictions, however, expressed by Mr. Lincoln to Dr. 
Bateman concerning the rightful attitude of Christianity and 
of Christian people to questions of practical morality and 
righteousness were never by him either retracted or in the 
least degree modified. On May 30th, 1864, in a letter to 
Senator James R. Doolittle and others, Mr. Lincoln expressed 
himself upon this subject with great frankness and force. 
And in his opinion one of the most objectionable features 
of the rebellion was the claim that it was prompted by Chris- 
tian motives. 

On the 3rd of December, 1864, in an interview with two 
Southern women, he spoke with unusual severity upon this 
subject, and so desirous was he that his views, as then ex- 
pressed, should be widely known that with his own hand he 
carefully prepared an account of the incident which he read 



LINCOLN'S RELIGIOUS EXPERIENCE 439 

to Noah Brooks, who, at the President's request, secured its 
publication in the Washington Chronicle precisely as it was 
written by Mr. Lincoln. It was entitled, "The President's 
Latest, Shortest and Best Speech," and was as follows: 

"On Thursday of last week, two ladies from Tennessee 
came before the President, asking the release of their hus- 
bands held as prisoners of war at Johnson's Island. They 
were put off until Friday, when they came again, and were 
again put off until Saturday. At each of the interviews one 
of the ladies urged that her husband was a religious man, 
and on Saturday the President ordered the release of the 
prisoners, when he said to this lady: 'You say your husband 
is a religious man; tell him when you meet him, that I say 
I am not much of a judge of religion, but that, in my opinion, 
the religion that sets men to rebel and fight against their gov- 
ernment, because, as they think, that government does not 
sufficiently help some men to eat their bread in the sweat of 
other men's faces, is not the sort of religion upon which 
people can get to heaven.' " '^^ 

In his account of this affair Mr. Brooks says: "Mr. 
Lincoln showed a surprising amount of gratification over this 
trifle and set his signature at the bottom of the page of the 
manuscript at my suggestion, in order to authenticate the 
autograph." ^^ 

The account of the affair as written and signed by Mr. 
Lincoln was reproduced in exact facsimile in the above-men- 
tioned magazine, which removes all possible doubt of its 
authenticity. 

The claim that slavery and the Rebellion were sanctioned 
by the Christian religion was referred to by President Lincoln 
in his second Inaugural Address with that delicate charity 
which pervaded that sublime production, and yet in terms 
which make it impossible to doubt his severe displeasure at 
the reproach upon Christianity implied in that claim. The 

^8 Complete Works of Abraham Lincoln, Vol. X., pp. 279-280. 
''^ Scrihner's Magazine, February, 1878, p. 566. 



440 LATEST LIGHT ON ABRAHAM LINCOLN 

ardent affection which Mr. Lincoln had ever cherished for 
the church was greatly intensified and strengthened by the 
loyal Christian patriotism which during the war pervaded the 
church, and of the religious heroism displayed by church 
people at the front and in all loyal states. 

Intended to Unite with the Church 

And during the latter part of "his weary and chastened 
life," he repeatedly expressed his purpose, "at the first suit- 
able opportunity, to make a profession of religion," by uniting 
with the church. The assassin's bullet, however, intervened 
and that purpose was not carried out, but, although his name 
was never entered upon any roll of membership of the visible 
church on earth, who can doubt that his name was recorded 
in "the Lamb's Book of Life" ? 




HORACE GREELEY 



VI 
LINCOLN AND HORACE GREELEY 

A HITHERTO UNCOMPLETED CHAPTER OF AMERICAN HISTORY 

WHEN I was a child, my heart many times was deeply 
moved by heated discussions at our frontier Ohio 
home between my father and callers who approved 
and attempted to defend American slavery. I say "attempted 
to defend," for to me it seemed only a feeble effort upon their 
part, as we sat by the crackling fire, for my father — whom I 
adored — was a master in argument and he never was so 
vehement and irresistible as when denouncing slavery. And 
during the long winter evenings, as I listened to those back- 
woods debates, the emotions which swept over my youthful 
soul were like surging billows that dash upon a stormy ocean 
beach. 

A few years later, while I was only a lad, for one silver 
dollar I sold to a neighbor some choice young fruit trees, 
which it had required more than three years of care and labor 
to produce. That silver dollar was larger in my eyes than 
was the "big, round moon." But far greater than the joy 
and pride of being the rightful owner of such wealth was my 
delight at being permitted to invest that dollar in a year's 
subscription to the New York Weekly Tribune. And during 
the year that followed, whenever the exacting duties of a 
toiling farmer boy would permit, I feasted mind and soul 
upon the literary pabulum which filled the columns of that 
great antislavery oracle, chiefly from the pen of Horace 
Greeley, the most gifted and influential journalist of his day. 

Thus early I learned to revere the name of Horace Greeley 
and unconsciously to imbibe the spirit with which he de- 

441 



442 LATEST LIGHT ON ABRAHAM LINCOLN 

nounced human slavery and assailed the propagandists of that 
institution. The Tribune was the Bible, and Horace Greeley 
the prophet of the abolition movement. And what was true 
of me was true of the multitudes throughout the nation who 
were constant readers of the Tribune and who were becoming 
more and more antagonistic to the institution of slavery. By 
his matchless force of intellect, and the authority of truth, he 
held undisputed sway over the hosts that gathered to his 
standard. Many were led by their hostility to slavery into 
a spirit and attitude of hostility to the Constitution, and the 
government which gave that institution protection. Only a 
limited number, however, of the antislavery people were borne 
to such extremes. Those who were more conservative, sought 
with diligence for some method by which their disapproval 
of slavery could be made effective in accordance with the 
provisions of the national Constitution. The movements of 
those antislavery forces w^ere like the mobilizing of a great 
army, and the leader of leaders in those movements was 
Horace Greeley. His masterful editorials in the Tribune 
were like the bugle blasts from a great commander calling the 
hosts to battle. 

In their efforts to obey those calls to duty the people 
rallied around divers standards. In the midst of political 
chaos the standard of slavery restriction was lifted up and, 
as by magic, the republican party came into being, standing 
upon a platform of but one distinctive plank — the prohibition 
of the extension of slavery into the Federal Territories. 

To an alert, enthusiastic lad those early movements were 
of thrilling interest, and not less inspiring was the later crys- 
tallization of that young party into effective cohesion. In the 
vicinity where my lot was cast, not one phase of this move- 
ment escaped my attention; and in 1856 a tall tamarack flag- 
pole stood in front of our house, holding aloft our starry 
banner to bear witness to my interest in the efforts for the 
election to the Presidency of Colonel John C. Fremont, the 
gallant young "Path Finder" of California. The nomination 



LINCOLN AND HORACE GREELEY 443 

of Fremont was very largely the result of the efforts of 
Horace Greeley, who never tired of sounding the praises of 
his chosen hero. Not less industrious and effective was Mr. 
Greeley in work which lay between the unsuccessful Fremont 
campaign in 1856 and the election of Abraham Lincoln in 
i860. 

It would be natural to suppose that after these many years 
of heroic struggle to secure the election of an antislavery 
President, Mr. Greeley would ever be found in loyal support 
of the administration, to the election of which he had been 
so large a contributor. But the history of the administration 
of Abraham Lincoln never will be fully written until the 
story of the strange and unfortunate course pursued by 
Horace Greeley toward him is told with greater fullness than 
it yet has been given to the world. In giving that story, I 
wish to bear witness even more fully than yet I have done, 
to my great admiration for Horace Greeley and to my loyalty 
to his leadership. 

In the early stages of his administration I was not partial 
to Abraham Lincoln. His nomination as the republican can- 
didate for President was my first great and grievous political 
disappointment. My ideal of an all-around American states- 
man and leader was the Hon. Salmon P. Chase, the idol of 
the antislavery forces and Governor of my native Ohio. The 
tremendous personality of Governor Chase, his heroic pro- 
portions, his majestic bearing. Immense intellectual force, and 
sterling integrity were well calculated to win for him the ad- 
miration and loyalty which it was my delight to contribute 
in unstinted measure. When I saw him on the platform I 
was thrilled by his magnificent measurements, his wonderful 
voice and his words of rare wisdom; and knowing as I did 
his great ability, it seemed to me that he was chosen of God 
to be the nation's standard-bearer. And I was heartbroken 
when I first learned that Abraham Lincoln, of whom we then 
knew so little, had been chosen as our candidate for Presi- 
dent; and although I supported Mr. Lincoln with hearty en- 



444 LATEST LIGHT ON ABRAHAM LINCOLN 

thusiasm, making more than one hundred speeches for his 
election, I was not quite satisfied with his conservative poHcy 
respecting slavery during the early months of his adminis- 
tration. Therefore, I was prepared to judge of the infe- 
licities between the President and the great journalist without 
partiality for Mr. Lincoln or prejudice against Mr. Greeley. 
These infelicities should be known and remembered by the 
American people that better counsels may prevail during the 
future of our history. 

Why should there have been infelicities between two such 
men as Abraham Lincoln, President of the United States, and 
Horace Greeley, leading journalist of the nation? Each had 
been a poor boy toiling for his daily bread, and with meager 
advantages for development. Each espoused the cause of the 
Whig party when he came to man's estate. Each was a man of 
great generosity of nature. Each was constitutionally, and in 
sentiment, thoroughly opposed to slavery. Each held the other 
in high esteem. They had been associated for a brief period in 
Congress in 1848, and Mr. Greeley had recorded his high re- 
gard for Mr. Lincoln at that time. Mr. Greeley listened with 
keen attention to Mr. Lincoln's Cooper Institute address on 
February 27th, i860, and not only spoke of it in the Tribune 
in terms of highest praise, but published the address in full 
for nation-wide distribution. And so high was the estimate 
Mr. Lincoln placed upon Horace Greeley that early in his 
administration he declared that Mr. Greeley's earnest support 
of his administration would be more helpful than a hundred 
thousand soldiers. 

Why then should there have been infelicity between these 
two great Americans I ask again? It is inadequate to a fitting 
characterization of that infelicity simply to declare it to have 
been unfortunate. It was more than unfortunate. It was 
wrong, radically, avoidably, culpably wrong, and Abraham 
Lincoln was not the perpetrator but the innocent victim of 
that wrong. This is my unequivocal and unqualified testi- 
mony after the lapse of more than half a century, and this 



LINCOLN AND HORACE GREELEY 445 

testimony is based upon a thorough familiarity with all the 
facts and events connected with the matter. 

There is given to us an early disclosure of the inner nature 
of these two great Americans. In 1858 Mr. Greeley, though 
the editor of the leading republican paper of the nation, failed 
to give his cordial support to Mr. Lincoln, as republican can- 
didate for the United States senate from Illinois, but pre- 
ferred the election of Stephen A. Douglas, the author of the 
repeal of the Missouri Compromise. The spirit by which Mr. 
Greeley was actuated is revealed by the following letter ad- 
dressed to a journalist very nearly his own equal in ability 
and in standing: 

New York, July 24, 1858. 
My Friend: 

You have taken your own course — don't try to throw the 
blame on others. You have repelled Douglas, who might have 
been conciliated and attached to our own side, whatever he 
may now find it necessary to say, or do, and instead of help- 
ing us in other states, you have thrown a load upon us that 
may probably break us down. 

You know what was the almost unanimous desire of the 
republicans of other states; and you spurned and Insulted 
them. Now go ahead and fight It through. You are in for 
it and It does no good to make up wry faces. What I have 
said in the Tribune since the fight was resolved on, has been 
in good faith. Intended to help you through. If Lincoln 
would fight up to the work also, you might get through — 
if he apologizes and retreats, he Is lost, and all others go 
down with him. His first Springfield speech, at the conven- 
tion, was in the right key; his Chicago speech was bad; and 
I fear the new Springfield speech is worse. If he dare not 
stand on broad republican ground, he cannot stand at all. 
That, however. Is his business; he is nowise responsible for 
what I say. I shall stand on the broad antlslavery ground, 
which I have occupied for years. I cannot change it to help 
your fight ; and I should only damage you If I did. You have 



446 LATEST LIGHT ON ABRAHAM LINCOLN 

got your Elephant — you would have him — now shoulder him ! 
He is not so very heavy after all. As I seem to displease 
you equally when I try to keep you out of troubles, and 
when, having rushed in in spite of you, I try to help you in 
the struggle you have unwisely provoked, I must keep neutral, 
so far as may be hereafter. 

Yours, 
(Signed) Horace Greeley. 
J. Medill, Esq., Chicago, Illinois.^ 

In reading this letter it should be remembered that Mr. 
Greeley's only provocation for such bitterness of spirit and 
imperious bearing was in the simple fact that the republicans 
of Illinois preferred Abraham Lincoln to Stephen A. Douglas 
as their United States senator. 

What a contrast between the spirit revealed by that letter 
and the heart of Abraham Lincoln as disclosed in the follow- 
ing portions of a letter written by him in the very heat of 
that terrific struggle with Mr. Douglas: 

Springfield, June ist, 1858. 
I have never said nor thought more, as to the inclination 
of some of our eastern republican friends to favor Douglas, 
than I expressed in your hearing on the evening of the 21st 
of April, at the State Library in this place. I have believed 
— do believe now — that Greeley, for instance, would be rather 
pleased to see Douglas re-elected over me or any other repub- 
lican; and yet I do not believe it is so because of any secret 
arrangement with Douglas; it is because he thinks Douglas's 
superior position, reputation, experience, and ability, if you 
please, would more than compensate for his lack of a pure 
republican position, and therefore his re-election do the gen- 
eral cause of republicanism more good than would the election 
of any one of our better undistinguished pure republicans. 
I do not know how you estimate Greeley, but I consider him 

1 Nicolay and Hay, Abraham Lincoln, A History, Vol. H., pp. 140-141. 



LINCOLN AND HORACE GREELEY 447 

Incapable of corruption or falsehood. He denies that he 
directly is taking part in favor of Douglas, and I believe him. 
Still his feeling constantly manifests itself in his paper, which, 
being so extensively read in Illinois is, and will continue to 
be, a drag upon us.^ 

No other great man known to American history ever has 
exhibited a spirit so free from resentment as is shown by 
this letter from Abraham Lincoln. 

It is probable that Mr. Greeley's hearty support in 1858 
would have resulted in Mr. Lincoln's election at that time to 
the United States senate. His failure to attain that object 
of his heart's desire undoubtedly resulted in his subsequent 
election to the Presidency. But that does not diminish the 
sense of keen resentment which might be expected to fill 
his heart because of Mr. Greeley's disaffection at such a 
time of need, for his highest aspiration at that time was to 
be chosen to a seat in the senate of the United States. How- 
ever, every utterance of Mr. Lincoln concerning the matter 
is in harmony with the letter above quoted. That same spirit 
characterized all of Mr. Lincoln's dealings and relations with 
Horace Greeley. 

During the struggle which preceded the campaign of i860 
Mr. Greeley's warfare against slavery and its defenders was 
characterized by great severity. Slavery was a great evil, but 
the feeling against it was intensified because of the methods 
by which it was defended and made strong and aggressive. 
Hence, the antislavery people were not disposed to disapprove 
of Mr. Greeley's severity when republishing in the Tribune 
an item which appeared in a pro-slavery paper, he added: 
"Now, if any one knows a better way to answer the one 
who wrote that item than by a blow over the head with the 
butt end of a musket, we will stand back and permit him to 
deal with this scoundrel." 

This language of the great antislavery editor was not 

2 Complete Works of Abraham Lincoln, Vol. II., p. 362. 



448 LATEST LIGHT ON ABRAHAM LINCOLN 

more savage than were editorials which appeared in Southern 
papers in the denunciation of abolitionists on account of their 
hostility to slavery. Therefore, the sympathetic readers of 
the Tribune did not recognize in Mr. Greeley's caustic lan- 
guage respecting slavery any disclosure of an imperious or 
uncharitable nature. Had the above letter to Mr. Joseph 
Medill, of Chicago, been published during the Lincoln- 
Douglas campaign of 1858 it would have shown the anti- 
slavery forces that in dealing with friends and comrades, Mr. 
Greeley could be quite as severe in judgment, and harsh in 
language, as when writing of slavery and its propagandists. 
But to the Tribune readers and to the antislavery forces 
throughout the nation, Mr. Greeley during those years was 
regarded as the embodiment of unselfish devotion to the in- 
terests of humanity, and as distinguished for personal 
amiability. 

His life-story had been most skillfully and attractively 
told by James Parton, whose literary fame rose many degrees 
when this biography was given to the world. Parton's story 
of Mr. Greeley's life won for his hero the admiration of the 
American people, and contributed very largely to the influence 
of the Tribune in molding public sentiment throughout the 
free states of the nation. 

Mr. Greeley, in the Tribune, had successfully championed 
the cause of struggling humanity. Nailing to its masthead 
the motto, "Land for the Landless," he aided in larger 
measure than did any other American in the passage of the 
"Homestead Law." And his clarion call, "Go west, young 
man, and grow up with the country," helped as did no other 
effort in making that Homestead Law effective, by peopling 
the frontier portions of the nation with a class of enterprising, 
intelligent, thoroughly American men and women. 

Because of the high esteem in which Mr. Greeley was 
held it was generally believed that his opposition to the nomi- 
nation of Hon. William H. Seward, in i860, as the repub- 
lican candidate for President, was wholly attributable to his 



LINCOLN AND HORACE GREELEY 449 

conviction that the great New York senator, though the 
favorite of the antislavery people, would not be able to poll 
as large a vote as would a more conservative candidate. I 
was very industrious in the political activities of those times 
and very attentive to all manifestations of popular opinions 
and tendencies. And as far as I could learn there was no 
manifest public suspicion that Mr. Greeley, in his opposition 
to Mr. Seward, was in any degree influenced by personal 
animosity. It was, however, generally understood by the 
masses that during all of Mr. Seward's official life as governor 
of New York, and as senator, he was in closest personal fel- 
lowship with Horace Greeley; consequently, Mr. Greeley's 
declaration in the Tribune to the effect that the nomination 
of Mr. Seward would be unwise and probably result in defeat 
at the polls had great weight with the people. Because of 
his opposition to Seward, Mr. Greeley himself failed to be 
elected a delegate from New York to the Chicago convention ; 
but by some means he succeeded in securing a seat in the 
convention as a delegate from Oregon, and was throughout 
the convention untiring in his efforts to prevent the nomi- 
nation of Mr. Seward. His championship of the candidacy 
of Edward Bates of Missouri was not because of any special 
preference for Mr. Bates, but because of his conviction that 
in supporting the Missouri candidate he could most effectively 
defeat Seward. 

Great was the manifestation of delight on the expressive 
face of Horace Greeley when Seward was defeated. The 
part taken by Mr. Greeley in this contest caused great bitter- 
ness against the Tribune and its editor, and gave rise to the 
insinuation that he was influenced by personal considerations. 

I first learned of this charge through Mr. Greeley's in- 
dignant demand in the Tribune that the letter he was accused 
of writing Seward should be furnished him for publication 
in his paper. "Not a copy of the letter, but the original, 
identical letter which I am accused of writing is demanded. 
Nothing else will be accepted but the original letter, which, if 



450 LATEST LIGHT ON ABRAHAM LINCOLN 

received, will be published in full that the readers of the 
Tribune may be afforded the opportunity to judge for them- 
selves respecting the charges that have been made." This 
was substantially the editorial which I read with interest and 
amazement. With bated breath the antislavery forces awaited 
the result. And they had not long to wait, for soon there 
appeared in the columns of the Tribune, the full text of the 
Greeley letter to Seward, written some two years previous, 
and starting out with the declaration, as I now remember, 
that on a designated date "the firm known as Seward, Weed 
and Greeley would be dissolved by the withdrawal of the 
junior member of the firm." The date designated in the letter 
as the one on which the firm would be dissolved was the date 
upon which Mr. Seward was expected to be re-elected to the 
senate of the United States, of which he was, at the time, 
a distinguished member. Thus Mr. Greeley announced his 
purpose to contribute to the re-election of Mr. Seward, and 
that after that event his support of Seward would be dis- 
continued. The reasons assigned in this letter for the course 
Mr. Greeley had decided to pursue were such as to fill the 
antislavery people throughout the nation with unspeakable 
regret because of the disclosure alike of the selfish motives 
by which Mr. Greeley was influenced, and the dictatorial and 
censorious spirit which he was not suppossed to possess. 

This reference to the Seward-Greeley episode is here made 
for the purpose of showing the infelicitous spirit by which 
Mr. Greeley was dominated. The same spirit, with even more 
objectionable features, was exhibited in all his relations with 
President Lincoln. This began immediately after Mr. Lin- 
coln's nomination at Chicago. During the campaign which 
resulted in his nomination there was great strife and more 
or less of bitterness. The delegates to that convention were 
confident of the election of the candidate whom they should 
name, if their choice proved to be fortunate. There was, 
therefore, a great prize for which the contending forces were 
struggling. But, when, upon the third ballot, Mr. Lincoln 



LINCOLN AND HORACE GREELEY 451 

received an overwhelming majority and was finally declared 
the nominee by a unanimous vote, all strife and contention 
instantly ceased, and all joined in words of congratulation 
and encouragement. 

But Horace Greeley could not keep step with his comrades 
in this movement for harmony, notwithstanding the fact that 
he announced in the Tribune his acceptance of the result 
of the convention, and his purpose to labor for the success 
of the ticket which had been nominated. In an editorial 
making the above statement he said of the nominee for Presi- 
dent: "While others are snowing him white with letters of 
congratulation, I must express my conviction that the nomi- 
nation of Edward Bates would have been more fortunate." 
There was probably then living no other great public man 
who would have inserted that needless sting into that assur- 
ance of support. But Mr. Lincoln had not been his first 
choice and, therefore, he could not refrain from the above 
statement, which could have no other possible influence than 
to weaken the whole movement for the triumph of the repub- 
lican cause. 

It is no disparagement of the faithfulness and efficiency 
of others to regard Mr. Greeley as by far the largest con- 
tributor to the election of Abraham Lincoln in i860. The 
Tribune, of which he was the editor and the dominating spirit, 
had a nation-wide circulation, and in all the Northern states 
it was the most potent influence in favor of the republican 
party. And through this medium, and otherwise, Mr. Gree- 
ley wrought with all his heart and soul for republican suc- 
cess. After the above disparaging missive not one discordant 
note was sounded by the Tribune, or its editor, until in 
November it bore to its readers the welcome tidings of tri- 
umph at the polls. 

But when the victory was won the master-spirit of the 
movement, Horace Greeley, seemed immediately to become a 
victim of the complex and conflicting influences of his own 
eccentric nature. Even while the joyful shouts of victory 



452 LATEST LIGHT ON ABRAHAM LINCOLN 

were ringing in his ears and his own praises were being sung 
by the glad multitudes, Mr. Greeley seemed to lose all the 
courage which had characterized his heroic struggles for 
human rights and welfare, and to be eager to surrender the 
fruit of triumph it had cost so dearly to achieve. Only three 
days after Mr. Lincoln's election Greeley published an edi- 
torial in the Tribune in which he said: 'Tf the Cotton States 
shall become satisfied that they can do better out of the 
Union than in it, we insist on letting them go in peace. . . . 
The right to secede may be a revolutionary one, but it exists, 
nevertheless. We must ever resist the right of any State 
to remain in the Union and nullify or defy the laws thereof. 
To withdraw from the Union is quite another matter, and 
whenever a considerable section of our Union shall deliber- 
ately resolve to get out we shall resist all coercive measures 
designed to keep it in. We hope never to live in a republic 
whereof one section is pinned to another by bayonets." ^ 

As early as November 30th, i860, less than a month after 
the Presidential election, Mr. Greeley, in the columns of his 
v/idely circulated and very influential paper, said: "Webster 
and Marshall and Story have reasoned well; the Federal flag 
represents the government, not a mere league ; we are in many 
respects one union from the St. John to the Rio Grande; 
but the genius of our institutions is essentially republican 
and averse to the employment of military force to fasten one 
section of our federacy to the other. If eight states, having 
five millions of people choose to separate from us, they cannot 
be permanently withheld from so doing by Federal cannon." 

These declarations of Mr. Greeley were in response to the 
mutterings of dissatisfaction and threats of rebellion in the 
South, and were adapted to encourage the beljef that secession 
could be secured without resistance from the national govern- 
ment. And while Mr. Greeley was thus encouraging the spirit 
of disloyalty by voluntarily offering to give away all the 
fruits of victory, Mr. Lincoln, the President-elect, though not 
3 A. K. McCIure, Lincoln and Men of War Times, p. 291. 



LINCOLN AND HORACE GREELEY 453 

yet possessing any official authority, on the nth of December, 
i860, sent a letter to William Kellogg, in which he said: 
"Entertain no proposition for a compromise in regard to the 
extension of slavery. The instant you do they have us under 
again ; all our labor is lost, and sooner or later must be done 
over. Douglas is sure to be again trying to bring in his 
'Popular Sovereignty.' Have none of it. The tug has to 
come, and better now than later. You know I think the 
fugitive slave clause of the Constitution ought to be enforced 
— to put it in its mildest form, ought not to be resisted." * 

And again, two days later, on the 13th of December, i860, 
Mr. Lincoln in a letter to Hon. E. B. Washburne of Illinois, 
said: "Prevent as far as possible any of our friends from 
demoralizing themselves and their cause by entertaining prop- 
ositions for compromise of any sort on slavery extension. 
There is no possible compromise upon it but what puts us 
under again, and all our work to do over again. Whether 
it be a Missouri line or Eli Thayer's popular sovereignty, 
it is all the same. Let either be done, and immediately fili- 
bustering and extending slavery recommences. On that point 
hold firm as a chain of steel." ^ 

Four days after Mr. Lincoln sent this earnest plea to 
Mr. Washburne, and just after the secession of South Caro- 
lina, Mr. Greeley in a leading editorial of the Tribune, in 
December, i860, in speaking of the Declaration of Inde- 
pendence, said: "If it justified the secession from the British 
Empire of three million of colonists in 1776, we do not see 
why it would not justify the secession of five million of South- 
erners from the Federal Union in 186 1. . . . If seven or 
eight contiguous states should present themselves at Washing- 
ton, saying: 'We hate the Federal Union: we have withdrawn 
from it; we give you the choice between acquiescing in our 
secession and arranging amicably all incidental questions on 
the one hand, and attempting to subdue us on the other,' we 

* Complete Works of Abraham Lincoln, Vol. VI., p. 77. 
5 Ibid., p. 78. 



454 LATEST LIGHT ON ABRAHAM LINCOLN 

would not stand up for coercion, for subjugation, for we do 
not think it would be just. We hold to the right of self- 
government even when invoked in behalf of those who deny it 
to others." 

At no time in his life did Mr. Lincoln appear so wise and 
far-seeing, or so resourceful, as during that memorable period 
of four months between his election in November, i860, and 
his inauguration on March 4th, 1861. All the resources of the 
national government were being employed to strengthen the 
disloyal element in the South which was threatening rebel- 
lion. While President Buchanan was not consenting to the 
acts of some of the members of his Cabinet, he was too weak 
and timid to exercise any influence in preventing them, or in 
safeguarding the interests of the nation. 

Far away in his Springfield home, IMr. Lincoln could see 
the storm gathering to wreck the ship of state with no au- 
thority or power to control the hostile influences. And to 
make more difficult his task, the President-elect was constantly 
besieged by letters, newspaper articles and personal interviews 
to take some action with a view of averting civil v/ar. To 
do so would in his judgment be unwise and harmful. It was 
claimed by some that a statement of his purposes would allay 
the apprehensions of the South and prevent war. But Mr. 
Lincoln knew that he repeatedly had declared his purposes 
with greatest possible fullness and clearness, and that any ad- 
ditional declaration at that crisis period would be regarded as 
an exhibition of timidity and would encourage rather than 
prevent the disloyal activities in the South. Many of the 
ablest men of the nation were engaged in what was desig- 
nated as the peace movements, all of which were in the interest 
of secession.^ 

^ Four years later, in his second inaugural, Mr. Lincoln referring to 
these conditions said : "While the inaugural address was being delivered 
from this place, devoted altogether to saving the Union without war, in- 
surgent agents were in the city seeking to destroy it without war — seeking 
to dissolve the Union and divide the efforts by negotiation." Complete 
Works 6f Abraham Lincoln, Vol. XL, pp. 44-45. 



LINCOLN AND HORACE GREELEY 455 

At this time of unspeakable peril, and of great perplexity, 
Mr. Lincoln's efforts to save the nation were being hindered 
and made ineffective by the damaging vagaries about peaceable 
secession in v^hich Mr. Greeley, in the Tribune, was constantly 
indulging. So harmful had these missives of Mr. Greeley 
become that Mr, Lincoln sent him a confidential word of cau- 
tion which caused Mr. Greeley to express his opinion that 
"a state could no more secede at pleasure from the Union than 
a stave could secede from a cask." But so distorted was Mr. 
Greeley's mental vision, that after this very forceful decla- 
ration he said: "If eight or ten contiguous states sought to 
leave, he should say, 'there's the door — go!' But, if the seced- 
ing state or states go to fighting and defying the laws, the 
Union being yet undissolved save by their own say-so, I guess 
they will have to be made to behave themselves. ... I fear 
nothing, care for nothing, but another disgraceful backdown 
of the free states. That is the only real danger. , Let the 
Union slide — it may be reconstructed ; let Presidents be assas- 
sinated, we can elect more; let the republicans be defeated and 
crushed, we shall rise again. But another nasty compromise, 
whereby everything is conceded and nothing secured, will so 
thoroughly disgrace and humiliate us that we can never 
again raise our heads, and this country becomes a second 
edition of the Barbary States, as they were sixty years ago. 
Take any form but that.' " ^ 

This declaration of Mr. Greeley was in a private letter to 
Mr. Lincoln, dated December 22nd, i860. Fortunately for 
the Union cause it was not published at the time, but it was 
to Mr. Lincoln a disclosure of the influences against which he 
would be compelled to contend in his efforts to save the Union. 

Several weeks after this interchange of messages between 
Horace Greeley and the President-elect Mr. Lincoln wrote his 
prospective Secretary of State, Hon. Wm. H. Seward, on 
February ist, 1861, as follows: "I am for no compromise 
which assists or permits the extension of the institution on soil 
"^ Nicolay and Hay, Abraham Lincoln, A History, Vol. HI., p. 258. 



456 LATEST LIGHT ON ABRAHAM LINCOLN 

owned by the nation. And any trick by which the nation is 
to acquire territory, and then allow some local authority to 
spread slavery over it, is as obnoxious as any other. I take 
it that to effect some such result as this, and to put us again 
on the high road to a slave empire, is the object of all these 
proposed compromises. I am against it." ® 

Col. A. K. McClure, who was probably as close to Presi- 
dent Lincoln as was any man not in official life, with the 
exception of Noah Brooks, in his excellent work, "Lincoln 
and Men of War Times," pp. 291-292, says of Mr. Greeley: 
"Less than two weeks before the inauguration of Lincoln, on 
the 23rd of February, 1861, and the same day on which his 
paper announced Lincoln's midnight journey from Harrisburg 
to Washington, Greeley said in a leading editorial: 'We have 
repeatedly said, and we once more insist, that the great prin- 
ciple embodied by Jefferson in the Declaration of American 
Independence, that governments derive their just powers from 
the consent of the governed, is sound and just, and that if the 
slave states, the Cotton States, or the Gulf states only choose 
to form an independent nation, they have a clear moral right 
to do so. Whenever it shall be clear that the great body of 
Southern people have become conclusively alienated from the 
Union and anxious to escape from it, we will do our best to 
forward their views.' " 

On pages 294-295 of the same work, Colonel McClure 
further says of Mr. Greeley: "He was never without some dis- 
turbing issue with Lincoln and the policy of the administration. 
. . . He fretted Lincoln more than any other one man in the 
United States, because he had greater ability and greater power 
than any whose criticisms could reach either Lincoln or the 
public." 

Mr. Greeley continued his harmful championship of peace- 
able separation in preference to what was termed "coercion" 
until the Confederate guns were opened upon Fort Sumter. 
The roar of the artillery seems to have awakened and aroused 
8 Complete Works of Abraham Lincoln, Vol. VI., p. 102. 



LINCOLN AND HORACE GREELEY 457 

the old-time spirit of heroism by which Mr. Greeley had been 
actuated during the years of his warfare against slavery. Ac- 
cording to his statement above quoted that the seceders "must 
be made to behave themselves," Mr. Greeley immediately, when 
the flag was fired upon, declared in favor of the most vigorous 
prosecution of the war. "The Nation's War Cry," was the 
caption of a Tribune editorial, printed in bold capitals and 
kept as standing matter in that paper. In that editorial Mr. 
Greeley said: "Forward to Richmond ! Forward to Richmond ! 
The Rebel Congress must not be allowed to meet there on the 
20th of July. By that date the place must be held by the 
national army!" 

The loyal people throughout the nation were thrilled by 
the daily declarations of the Tribune in favor of heroic action. 
So effective were these appeals of Mr. Greeley in the Tribune 
that public sentiment soon arose to fever-heat and the people 
clamored for opportunities to resist, by force of arms, those 
who were seeking the overthrow of the government. 

When the Confederate forces were being marshalled at 
points adjacent to the national Capital, Mr. Lincoln called a 
council of his Cabinet with General Scott, who at that time 
was in command of the Union forces. In this council Gen- 
eral Scott stated that the government was not in condition 
to make a successful advance upon the enemy, and earnestly 
recommended that no efforts in that direction be undertaken 
until the coming autumn. To this proposition Mr. Lincoln 
and each member of his Cabinet promptly replied that "the 
condition of public sentiment would not permit such a delay." 
That condition of public sentiment was very largely the prod- 
uct of the Tribune's impatient, and at times denunciatory 
insistence upon an immediate advance. Under this compul- 
sion of public sentiment thus inflamed, the advance upon 
Manassas was undertaken and the disastrous battle of Bull 
Run was the result. Those were gloomy days for the loyal 
people of this nation. Better a thousand times that Mr. Lin- 
coln should have been left to make the full and perfect prep- 



458 LATEST LIGHT ON ABRAHAM LINCOLN 

aration which he deemed necessary before proceeding against 
an enemy so thoroughly equipped and prepared for action. 
But the well-meant clamor of the people, led by the Tribune, 
compelled that premature advance with its deplorable results. 

It is amusing to remember the Tribune's instant change of 
front. No longer did its columns teem with passionate de- 
mands for immediate advance upon the enemy. I can recall, 
as vividly as if it occurred yesterday, the subdued and softened 
tones of the Tribune, which followed the disastrous Bull Run 
battle. Mr. Greeley assured his readers that it was not his 
purpose to interfere to any degree, or in any manner, with 
the action of the general government. Those in authority, 
he declared, were better informed than were others concerning 
conditions and should be left without interference by the 
people, to decide when and where and how to make an attack 
against the enemy. 

That was wise counsel, but, unfortunately, it was late in 
being given. And then followed other disasters, and while the 
President, with sleepless, tireless energy, was seeking to save 
the nation; and while the people throughout the loyal states 
were kneeling before God in earnest supplications for the great 
and good Chieftain who, at this hour of grief and danger, 
sorely needed words of counsel and encouragement, Horace 
Greeley from his citadel in New York, hurled into the White 
House and into the heart of the President, the following cruel 
javehns: 

New York, Monday, July 29, 1861. Midnight. 
Dear Sir: 

This is my seventh sleepless night — yours, too, doubtless — 
yet I think I shall not die, because I have no right to die. I 
must struggle to live, however bitterly. But to business. You 
are not considered a great man, and I am a hopelessly broken 
one. You are now undergoing a terrible ordeal, and God has 
thrown the gravest responsibilities upon you. Do not fear 
to meet them. ... If the Union is irrevocably gone, an ar- 



LINCOLN AND HORACE GREELEY 459 

mistice for thirty, sixty, ninety, one hundred and twenty days 
— better still a year — ought at once to be proposed, with a view 
to a peaceful adjustment. Then Congress should call a na- 
tional convention, to meet at the earliest possible day. And 
there should be an immediate and mutual exchange or release 
of prisoners and a disbandment of forces. I do not consider 
myself at present a judge of anything but the public senti- 
ment. That seems to be everywhere gathering and deepen- 
ing against a prosecution of the war. The gloom in this city 
is funereal — for our dead at Bull Run were many, and they 
lie unburied yet. On every brow sits sullen, scorching, black 
despair. 

If it is best for the country and mankind that we make 
peace with the rebels at once and on their own terms, do not 
shrink even from that. But bear in mind the greatest truth : 
"Whoso would lose his life for my sake shall save it." Do 
the thing that is the highest right, and tell me how I am to 
second you. 

Yours, in the depth of bitterness, 

Horace Greeley.^ 

This harsh and heartless criticism of President Lincoln 
and of the Government at Washington, for the disastrous 
defeats which had occurred, caused Mr. Lincoln unspeakable 
pain, but did not awaken in his heart any feeling of resent- 
ment. It was the more inexcusable because it was well 
known to Mr. Greeley, that previous to Mr. Lincoln's inaugu- 
ration, the administration of the Government had been so 
conducted by officials in full sympathy with the South as to 
cause him to be destitute of men or money with which to 
carry on the war against men who, according to their own 
declaration, had been preparing for the struggle "for more 
than thirty years." Therefore, the deplorable disasters which 
Mr, Greeley mentioned in this tirade against the Government 
should have awakened in every loyal heart deepest sympathy 
» Nicolay and Hay, Abraham Lincoln, A History, Vol. IV., pp. 365-366. 



46o LATEST LIGHT ON ABRAHAM LINCOLN 

with those who at such great disadvantage were seeking to 
save the nation from disaster. But Mr. Greeley was so con- 
stituted that he could only see that victory on the field of 
battle for the Union cause was desirable, and because it was 
desirable it must be attained, or upon the authorities of the 
nation his unqualified and crushing condemnation would fall. 

In November, 1861, Mr. James R. Gilmore, a young, enter- 
prising and brilliant literary gentleman with ample means, 
who is mentioned on other pages of this volume, visited 
Horace Greeley at the request of the Hon. Robert J. Walker, 
for the purpose of enlisting the Tribune editor in a movement 
for the publication of a magazine devoted wholly to the 
advocacy of emancipation. Mr. Greeley's interest was at 
once awakened by Mr. Gilmore's statement that Governor 
Walker was associated with him in the magazine enterprise. 
"Robert J. Walker!" said Mr. Greeley in surprise. "He is 
the greatest man we have had since Benjamin Franklin." It 
is probable that in this statement Mr. Greeley did not over- 
estimate the great son of Pennsylvania, who, as senator from 
Mississippi, aided Andrew Jackson to crush nullification, and 
as Governor of Kansas, had performed even a greater service 
to the nation. 

During this interview Mr. Greeley incidentally remarked 
that "everything was going to the devil," and when Mr. Gil- 
more asked for an explanation of his meaning, he declared: 

"For half a year we have had one continued succession of 
disasters — Big Bethel, Bull Run, Wilson's Creek, and now 
Ball's Bluff, and the loss of Baker — with nothing to offset 
but a few insignificant victories in West Virginia — and all 
owing to the supineness and stupidity of the people at Wash- 
ington. Six months ! and we worse off than when we began ! 
Why, six weeks of such a man as Jackson would have 
stamped the whole thing out ; and now it must go on till 
both sections are ruined, and all because we have no sense 
or energy in the Government. It pains, it grieves me to 
think of it; for I feel in a measure responsible for it. For 



LINCOLN AND HORACE GREELEY 461 

you know it is said that but for my action in the convention, 
Lincoln would not have been nominated. It was a mistake, 
the biggest mistake of my life." 

The reader will observe that in these statements Mr. 
Greeley not only speaks with harsh severity with reference to 
the disasters which had befallen the nation, but in so doing 
he piles merciless maledictions upon those who were charged 
with the duty of conducting the Government. It is probable 
that there was not in any government of earth at that time 
a company of more able, experienced statesmen than were 
those constituting Mr. Lincoln's Cabinet. That he might be 
surrounded by men of highest type, he astonished the world 
by choosing as his constitutional advisers the men who had 
been his chief rivals for his nomination. It is not probable 
that any other man who ever occupied the Presidential office 
would have dared to bring so large a company of able and 
experienced rivals into his official family. And Mr. Gree- 
ley's designation of these men, as above stated, is an illustra- 
tion of his hasty and severe judgment respecting those who 
did not in all respects conform to his wishes. 

And following this disloyal diatribe, and at the same inter- 
view, Mr. Greeley expressed to Mr. Gilmore his earnest wish 
to enter into a close alliance with President Lincoln by which 
he would receive for publication in the Tribune, advance in- 
formation respecting the policies and proposed action of the 
Government. In return for this he engaged to give the 
President, and his administration, such cordial and constant 
support as would be rendered by an administration organ. 

If it were not a matter of undisputable record it would be 
difficult to believe that after the letters he had sent to the 
President, as above stated, and immediately following his 
harangue of denunciation, Mr. Greeley could have made such 
a proposition. But more wonderful than this proposition of 
Mr. Greeley was the fact that when, a few days later, the 
matter was mentioned to Mr. Lincoln by Governor Walker 
and Mr. Gilmore, the President greeted the suggestion with 



462 LATEST LIGHT ON ABRAHAM LINCOLN 

seeming delight and approval. Remembering all the infelici- 
ties through which he had passed, and especially the cruel and 
discouraging messages he had received from the Tribune 
editor, it seems incredible that a chief magistrate so extremely 
cautious and reticent as Mr. Lincoln was known to be could 
have entertained such a proposition for a moment. But Mr. 
Lincoln was so utterly void of any spirit of resentment or re- 
taliation, so large-hearted and charitable in his estimates of 
his associates in the Union movement, and so unutterably 
anxious to secure the hearty co-operation of Mr. Greeley and 
the Tribune in the great struggle he was in, that he immedi- 
ately prepared the following letter to Governor Walker: 

Washington, Nov. 21, 1861. 
Dear Governor: 

I have thought over the interview which Mr. Gilmore 
has had with Mr. Greeley, and the proposal that Greeley has 
made to Gilmore, namely, that he (Gilmore) should commu- 
nicate to him (Greeley) all that he learns from you of the 
inner workings of the administration, in return for his (Gree- 
ley's) giving such aid as he can to the new magazine, and 
allowing you (Walker) from time to time the use of his 
(Greeley's) columns when it is desirable to feel of, or fore- 
stall, public opinion on important subjects. The arrangement 
meets my unqualified approval, and I shall further it to the 
extent of my ability, by opening to you — as I do now — fully 
the policy of the Government — its present views and future 
intentions when formed — giving you permission to communi- 
cate them to Gilmore for Greeley; and in case you go to 
Europe I will give these things direct to Gilmore. But all 
this must be on the express and explicit understanding that 
the fact of these communications coming from me shall be 
absolutely confidential — not to be disclosed by Greeley to his 
nearest friend, or any of his subordinates. He will be, in 
effect, my mouthpiece, but I shall not be known to be the 
speaker. 



LINCOLN AND HORACE GREELEY 463 

I need not tell you that I have the highest confidence in 
Mr. Greeley. He is a great power. Having him firmly behind 
me will be as helpful to me as an army of one hundred thou- 
sand men. That he has ever kicked the traces has been owing 
to his not being fully informed. Tell Gilmore to say to him 
that, if he ever objects to my policy, I shall be glad to have 
him state to me his views frankly and fully. I shall adopt 
his if I can. If I cannot, I shall at least tell him why. He 
and I should stand together, and let no minor differences come 
between us; for we both seek one end, which is the saving 
of our country. Now, Governor, this is a longer letter than 
I have written in a month — longer than I would have written 
for any other man than Horace Greeley. 

Your friend, truly, 

Abraham Lincoln. 

P. S. — The sooner Gilmore sees Greeley the better, as you 
may before long think it wise to ventilate our poHcy on the 
Trent affair.^** 

The reader scarcely need be requested to note the un- 
qualified approval which Mr. Lincoln gives to this Greeley 
proposition, and his statement, 'T shall further it to the extent 
of my abihty." 

The existence of the above letter is so little known, and its 
contents are of such measureless importance, that I not only 
publish the same in full, but most earnestly request that those 
who peruse these pages give it, in its entirety, careful consid- 
eration. It should not be overlooked nor forgotten, that the 
subject matter to which this communication refers was "the 
proposal that Greeley has made to Gilmore." In the fertile 
brain of the great journalist the proposition which is here set 
forth had its origin. The proposition was a bold and very 
remarkable effort of Mr. Greeley to secure for his paper such 
favors from the administration as are bestowed only upon 
publications which are known to represent the administration. 
10 Complete Works of Abraham Lincoln, Vol. XL, pp. 121-122. 



464 LATEST LIGHT ON ABRAHAM LINCOLN 

Those were momentous days when careful efforts were 
being made to form an alliance between President Lincoln 
and Horace Greeley. The two principals in the proposed alli- 
ance did not meet during the period in which the affiliation 
was being considered. All the necessary arrangements were 
made between the President and Mr. Greeley through the 
agency of Governor Robert J. Walker and James R. Gilmore. 
The two men who were negotiating for the formation of 
that alHance were the most potential personalities in the nation. 
The President by virtue of his great office and his transcen- 
dent gifts of leadership was pre-eminently the foremost per- 
sonality of the world. Horace Greeley, by whose suggestion 
the forming of that alliance was undertaken, was at that time 
the peerless journalist of the nation. 

There is no evidence that the proposed alliance between 
President Lincoln and Horace Greeley, though solicited by the 
latter and favored by the former, ever was so fully consum- 
mated as to exert any restraining influence upon the Tribune 
or its editor. When Mr. Gilmore presented the above letter 
of the President to Governor Walker to Mr. Greeley, he care- 
fully read and reread it, "his face beaming with simple joy- 
ousness." He then said: "He (Mr. Lincoln) is a wonderful 
man — wonderful ! I never can harbor a thought against him 
except when I keep away from him. You must let me keep 
this letter." When Mr. Gilmore hesitated to grant this re- 
quest, Mr. Greeley said: "It shall not be seen. I want it just 
to look at when I am downhearted. The approval of such 
a man is worth having." Yet Mr. Greeley's criticisms and 
complaints continued, and were quite as unreasonable, unkind 
and harmful as they had been. There can be no estimate of 
the advantage to the country if the proposed alliance could 
have been formed and made effective. It certainly would have 
added immensely to the influence of the Tribune throughout 
the nation to have had information respecting the policy and 
operations of the government in advance of other papers, and 



LINCOLN AND HORACE GREELEY 465 

would have caused the great repubHcan daily to become recog- 
nized as an administration organ, and would have built it up 
into far greater strength and influence than it ever attained. 

And to have had that great paper standing boldly and un- 
waveringly for the measures which the President sought to 
make effective would so have added to the strength and effect- 
iveness of the government as to justify Mr. Lincoln's decla- 
ration in his letter to Governor Walker that Mr. Greeley's 
cordial and constant support would be more helpful than an 
army of a hundred thousand men. 

In looking back upon these pregnant events I am thrilled 
with religious patriotism when I consider the possibilities of 
the carrying out of the purposes for which the alliance between 
the Tribune and the national administration was undertaken. 
I drank daily and copiously from the waters which flowed 
from the seemingly exhaustless fountain in the Tribune build- 
ing in New York City. I mingled continuously with the 
people whose thirst was slaked by the same refreshing 
waters. I heard the name of Horace Greeley in conversation 
and upon the platform almost as frequently as the name of 
Abraham Lincoln. I have not forgotten that we accepted 
as our own the opinions advocated by Greeley, often without 
hesitation. His statements were never called in question and 
his public suspicions respecting the motives of men in public 
life, and the probable results of proposed measures and move- 
ments influenced the judgment of the people almost like a 
divine edict. And I realized then, as I do more fully while 
I write these words, that the troubled waters of public sen- 
timent during those fitful seasons of excitement and de- 
pression, could have been calmed by a little of the oil of loyal 
counsel in the columns of the Tribune. My eyes are misty, 
and my heart throbs with more than patriotic sorrow as I 
meditate upon the possibilities of the faithful carrying out of 
the covenant between the Tribune and the national adminis- 
tration. All who are familiar with the story of the Rebellion 
know that there were times, how many times need not be 



466 LATEST LIGHT ON ABRAHAM LINCOLN 

designated, when prompt and courageous action by the Union 
forces would have brought the war to a speedy close. Instead 
of such action there was seeming timidity and delay. With 
tear-dimmed eyes we read the story of those golden oppor- 
tunities which came and went with the exigencies of war. 
But no such failure in the field resulted in such serious loss to 
the Union cause as did the failure of the proposed covenant 
of co-operation between President Lincoln and Horace Gree- 
ley. There were times when the hostility of Mr. Greeley and 
the Tribune to President Lincoln and his policies reached a 
crisis. Such a point was reached when in the Spring of 1862 
the President courteously but earnestly invited Mr. Greeley to 
an interview in the White House and in a manner which at 
times of great emergency he assumed said to Mr. Greeley: 
"What have I done or omitted to do which has provoked the 
hostility of the Tribune?" To this pointed and significant 
question of Mr. Lincoln, Mr. Greeley replied by declaring that 
the President ought to issue a Proclamation of Emancipation. 
To this Mr. Lincoln replied : "There are twenty thousand mus- 
kets on the shoulders of Kentuckians who are bravely fight- 
ing our battles. Every one of them will be thrown down or 
carried over to the Rebels if I should issue such a proclama- 
tion." 

"Let them go !" angrily replied Mr. Greeley, "the cause of 
the Union will be stronger if Kentucky should secede." To 
this Mr. Lincoln calmly replied: "Oh, I cannot think that." 

Was there ever a more impressive exhibition of the calm 
dignity and great strength which should characterize a great 
ruler than this answer of Abraham Lincoln to the petulant, 
irrational declaration of Horace Greeley? 

Again and again I have read the account of this interview 
and have meditated upon its significance, and at each perusal 
it reveals, with greater distinctness, the dominant characteris- 
tics of these two great men. In the light of history, Mr. 
Greeley's declarations are like the utterances of a madman, 
while the words of Lincoln are as the voice of a sage. 



LINCOLN AND HORACE GREELEY 467 

Another crisis was reached when on the 19th of August, 
1862, Mr. Greeley published in the Tribune, an editorial which 
he had the assurance to designate as "The Prayer of Twenty 
Million." It was an "Open Letter" to the President, and to 
this day I have a vivid recollection of the tremendous impres- 
sion which that editorial made throughout the country. It 
was a haughty, dictatorial demand that the President should 
conduct the administration of the government according to 
Mr. Greeley's interpretation of his duties. The following is 
a portion of that editorial: 

"On the face of this wide earth, Mr. President, there is not 
one disinterested, determined, intelligent champion of the 
Union cause who does not feel that all attempts to put down 
the Rebellion and at the same time uphold its inciting cause, 
are preposterous and futile — that the Rebellion, if crushed out 
tomorrow, would be renewed within a year if slavery were 
left in full vigor — that army officers, who remain to this day 
devoted to slavery, can at best be but halfway loyal to the 
Union — and that every hour of deference to slavery is an 
hour of added and deepened peril to the Union. I appeal to 
the testimony of your Ambassadors in Europe. It is freely 
at your service, not mine. Ask them to tell you candidly 
whether the seeming subserviency of your policy to the slave- 
holding, slavery-upholding interest, is not the perplexity, the 
despair of statesmen of all parties; and be admonished by the 
general answer." ^^ 

This editorial came at a time of critical conditions, and 
with nervous anxiety we awaited the action of the President 
in the matter. Many expected the strong hand of the gov- 
ernment to be laid upon the great daily and that its editor 
would be called to an account for his interference with 
the administration at a time of great peril. But if an angel 
from heaven had come into our midst, bearing a message from 

11 Horace Greeley, The American Conflict, pp. 249-250. 



468 LATEST LIGHT ON ABRAHAM LINCOLN 

the throne of God, it could not have produced a more pro- 
found impression than did the following reply of President 
Lincoln to the caustic criticisms of Mr. Greeley: 

/ 

\y Executive Mansion, Washington, August 22, 1862. 

Dear Sir: 

I have just read yours of the 19th addressed to myself 
through the New York Tribune. If there be in it any state- 
ments or assumptions of fact which I may know to be erro- 
neous, I do not now and here, controvert them. If there 
be in it any inferences which I may believe to be falsely 
drawn, I do not, now and here, argue against them. If there 
be perceptible in it an impatient and dictatorial tone, I waive 
it in deference to an old friend whose heart I have always 
supposed to be right. 

As to the policy I "seem to be pursuing," as you say, I 
have not meant to leave any one in doubt. 

I would save the Union. I would save it the shortest 
way under the Constitution. The sooner the national au- 
thority can be restored, the nearer the Union will be "the 
Union as it was." If there be those who would not save 
^'Xht Union unless they could at the same time save slavery, 
I do not agree with them. If there be those who would not 
save the Union unless they could at the same time destroy 
slavery, I do not agree with them. My paramount object 
in this struggle is to save the Union, and is not either to save 
or to destroy slavery. If I could save the Union without 
freeing any slave, I would do it; and if I could save it by 
freeing all the slaves, I would do it; and if I could save it 
by freeing some and leaving others alone, I would also do 
that. What I do about slavery and the colored race, I do 
because I believe it helps to save the Union; and what I for- 
bear, I forbear because I do not believe it would help to save 
the Union. I shall do less whenever I shall believe what I 
am doing hurts the cause, and I shall do more whenever I 
shall believe doing more will help the cause. /T shall try to 



LINCOLN AND HORACE GREELEY 469 

correct errors when shown to be errors, and I shall adopt new 
views as fast as they shall appear to be true views. 

I have here stated my purpose according to my view of 
official duty; and I intend no modification of my oft- 
expressed personal wish that all men everywhere could be 
free. 

Yours, I 

A. Lincoln." 

The above "Open Letter" to Mr. Greeley was first pub- 
lished on the 23rd of August, 1862, in the National Intelli- 
gencer of Washington, D. C, and was at once copied in all 
the loyal papers of the country. Its immediate results re- 
sembled the "great calm which settled like a benediction upon 
tempestuous Galilee when a Voice divine rebuked the wind and 
the raging of the water." It was like the passing of the crisis 
of a burning fever, when speedy restoration to health and 
vigor suddenly begins. Many times since its first appearance 
that "Open Letter" has been published and it has come to be 
regarded as one of the most nearly perfect epistolary produc- 
tions of human history. 

Mr. Greeley attempted to reply but his efforts, though 
violent, only revealed his utter discomfiture; and in his own 
estimation his arguments were not of sufficient merit to jus- 
tify reproduction in his elaborate history of "The American 
Conflict." But until the hour of Mr. Lincoln's tragic death 
Mr. Greeley seems neither to have forgiven nor forgotten that 
"Open Letter" which made August 22nd, 1862, an epoch 
in our nation's history. He continued his petulant criticisms 
but, peerless journalist as he believed himself to be, he never 
again ventured into the field of epistolary controversy with 
Abraham Lincoln. 

It is interesting to remember that when President Lin- 
coln wrote that letter to Horace Greeley he already had pre- 
pared the Emancipation Proclamation, and was anxiously 

12 Complete Works of Abraham Lincoln, Vol. VIII., p. 15. 



470 LATEST LIGHT ON ABRAHAM LINCOLN 

waiting for more favorable military results before giving it 
publicity. That Proclamation had been discussed at length 
by the Cabinet and was lying in the drawer of the desk on 
which Mr. Lincoln wrote that Greeley letter. Just one month 
to the day from the date of that letter President Lincoln 
issued his preliminary Proclamation of Emancipation, which 
on the first day of the next January was followed by the final 
Proclamation. 

The opportunity of his life — such an opportunity as very 
few men ever have had — came to Horace Greeley when the 
Emancipation Proclamation was issued by President Lincoln. 
Next to the President, Mr. Greeley was more responsible than 
any other person for that monumental edict of freedom. 
Because of his transcendent ability, his great influence with 
the people, and the immense circulation of the Tribune of 
which he was editor, Mr. Greeley had been the largest con- 
tributor to the creation of the public sentiment which made 
possible the election of Mr. Lincoln as President, and in due 
time caused him to issue that Proclamation. 

Being a lifelong abolitionist, and of very ardent tempera- 
ment, Mr. Greeley from the beginning of the war insisted 
upon the destruction of slavery not only upon moral grounds 
but as a means of military success. His demand for an Eman- 
cipation Proclamation was urged with ceaseless energy and 
at times in a dictatorial and imperious spirit. It was, there- 
fore, peculiarly fitting that when that Proclamation for which 
Mr. Greeley had so long and so persistently pleaded was given 
to the world, he should be found among the most enthusiastic 
in supporting that important measure and in commending its 
author. 

Furthermore, Mr. Greeley was under especial obligations 
to rally to the support of that Proclamation and of the Presi- 
dent and his administration because of the hostility which the 
Proclamation had aroused throughout the loyal states. A gen- 
eral election of members of Congress was soon to be held in 
all the loyal states, and it was a matter of supreme importance 



LINCOLN AND HORACE GREELEY 471 

to have a verdict from the people in support of the antislavery 
policy adopted by the administration. The pro-slavery ele- 
ment in the loyal states was by the Proclamation aroused to 
frenzied assaults upon Mr. Lincoln, and were aided in their 
warfare by the Union people whose ardor was cooled by the 
adoption of the Emancipation policy. Postmaster General 
Montgomery Blair, when the Emancipation Proclamation was 
under consideration in the Cabinet, very emphatically and with 
unquestioning confidence assured the President that its adop- 
tion would cost him an adverse verdict of the people at the 
polls in November. Mr. Lincoln was also seriously apprehen- 
sive that such might be the case; yet, in obedience to an im- 
perious sense of duty, he decided to incur the risk and trust 
to the loyal antislavery people to secure for the measure pop- 
ular endorsement. 

This condition gave Mr. Greeley the great opportunity to 
which, unfortunately, his measurements were not adequate. 
He gave the Emancipation Proclamation his enthusiastic sup- 
port and he manifested a degree of interest in the election 
of members of Congress who favored emancipation, but his 
chief interest seemed to be in the Presidential election to be 
held two years later, at which time he was determined to 
prevent the re-election of President Lincoln. To accomplish 
that result he was searching the entire country to find a can- 
didate for whom he could hope to win the nomination by the 
national convention of the Union party. During all the sum- 
mer and autumn of 1862 I was in the thick of the fight to 
secure for the President, and for his administration, such an 
endorsement by the people at the polls as would aid in the 
struggle for the preservation of the nation. Well do I re- 
member how the Emancipation Proclamation intensified that 
struggle by arousing to greater efforts both of the contending 
forces. Nor can I forget how seriously the Union party was 
weakened in that struggle by Mr. Greeley's persistent hostility 
to the President and his administration. And half a century 
of diversified experiences has not made less vivid my realiza- 



472 LATEST LIGHT ON ABRAHAM LINCOLN 

tion of the depressing gloom that darkened all the land when 
the verdict at the polls, at the Congressional election in 1862, 
was found to be unfavorable to the administration. 

But in that darkness a guiding star appeared as the people 
came to realize that the cause of emancipation was bound up 
in a bundle of life with the great Emancipator, and that his 
re-election was essential to the success of the edict against 
slavery and the preservation of the Union. However, while 
the masses were thus gathering to the standard of President 
Lincoln, Horace Greeley was industriously prosecuting his 
quest for a candidate to compete with Mr. Lincoln for the 
Presidential nomination. 

At the dawning of the New Year, 1863, millions of slaves 
throughout the country arose and shook off the galling fetters 
with which they had been bound, and with melting melody that 
defied all efforts at imitation, mingled in song the name of 
their Divine Deliverer and, to them, the equally sacred and 
cherished name of Abraham Lincoln. The Emancipation 
Proclamation was effective with the slaves and it wrought like 
leaven among the loyal masses of the nation, but it failed to 
soften the heart of Horace Greeley, and to cause him to feel 
more kindly towards its author. 

In May, 1863, the first year of freedom, Mr. Greeley sent 
Mr. James R. Gilmore, who had become a member of 
the Tribune editorial staff, to Murfreesboro, Tennessee, for 
the purpose of inducing General W. E. Rosecrans, then in 
command of the Army of the Cumberland, to consent to be- 
come a candidate for the Presidency. But, although in this 
he was unsuccessful, he continued to prosecute his warfare 
against the renomination of Mr. Lincoln, until his opposing 
voice was smothered by the shouts of approval in the Balti- 
more convention that registered the verdict of the people in 
favor of Abraham Lincoln. If Mr. Greeley had been of 
dimensions equal to his opportunity he would have pursued 
the consistent course for a great and good man, and would 



LINCOLN AND HORACE GREELEY 473 

have gone into history as second to only one, in his achieve- 
ments for the cause of human freedom. 

And after that renomination at Baltimore, at the crisis 
of that campaign, Mr. Greeley was active with the Wade- 
Davis faction in conducting a most unreasonable warfare 
against the President for the wise and proper exercise of his 
rightful executive authority to veto a measure which he did 
not approve. And though, during all the Presidential cam- 
paign, Mr. Greeley advocated the vigorous prosecution of the 
war, we were constantly confronted by the claim which during 
preceding years he so persistently had presented, that peace 
without dismemberment could be secured by negotiations. It 
was this claim of the opposition which during those midsum- 
mer months of 1864 caused the re-election of Mr. Lincoln to 
appear to some of his party leaders, and even to himself, as 
exceedingly improbable. There never had come from the Con- 
federate authorities one utterance to justify the claim that 
any terms of peace without a dissolution of the Union would 
be by them for a moment entertained. 

Yet, during the Presidential campaign of 1864, those Con- 
federate leaders had, with consummate cunning, kept silent 
respecting this matter which gave the opposition the oppor- 
tunity they coveted to claim that the time had come when the 
Union could be saved by negotiation without further "effu- 
sion of blood." And during the preceding years Mr. Greeley 
had persisted In presenting the same claim, and thus he had 
contributed to the public sentiment which made difficult and 
doubtful the triumph of the Union cause at the Presidential 
election. 

It was characteristic of Mr. Greeley's eccentricities that 
in July, 1864, after Mr. Lincoln's renomination as a candidate 
for re-election, and before the national convention of the op- 
position had been held, he became actively interested in what 
is known as the Conference of Niagara Falls. 

Two Confederate leaders. Clay of Alabama and Thomp- 
son of Mississippi, had found their way to a point in Canada, 



474 LATEST LIGHT ON ABRAHAM LINCOLN 

not far from Niagara Falls, and at once opened negotiations 
with Mr. Greeley. The unsophisticated journalist immediately 
saw a cloud of doves of peace, each bearing an olive branch, 
and moving toward our national capital. Inspired by this 
vision, he sent on July /th, 1864, a message to the President, 
in which he said: 'T venture to remind you that our bleeding, 
bankrupt, almost dying country, longs for peace — shudders at 
the prospect of fresh conscriptions, of further wholesale dev- 
astations, and of new rivers of human blood; and a wide- 
spread conviction that the Government and its supporters are 
not anxious for peace and do not improve proffered oppor- 
tunities to achieve it, is doing great harm and is morally cer- 
tain, unless removed, to do far greater in the approaching 
elections. . . . 

"Mr. President, I fear you do not realize how intently 
the people desire any peace consistent with the national in- 
tegrity and honor, and how joyously they would hail its 
achievement and bless its authors. . . . I do not say that 
a just peace is now attainable, though I believe it to be so." ^' 

In this letter Mr. Greeley informs the President of the 
presence of the two above-named Confederate officers at 
Niagara Falls and intimates that they are authorized by the 
Confederate Government to offer terms of peace. He further 
asks on behalf of those alleged commissioners the President's 
safe conduct that they may visit Washington and confer with 
him. 

But Abraham Lincoln was not to be caught in the trap 
thus skillfully set and baited by the Confederate emissaries 
and their unsophisticated associate — Horace Greeley. He 
understood far better than Mr. Greeley the mission of those 
Confederate commissioners at Niagara Falls. Therefore, with 
characteristic sagacity Mr. Lincoln on the 9th of July, 1864, 
replied to this letter from Mr. Greeley as follows: "If you 
can find any person anywhere professing to have authority 
from Jefferson Davis, in writing, embracing the restoration of 
" Nicolay and Hay, Vol. IX., pp. 186-187. 



LINCOLN AND HORACE GREELEY 475 

the Union and the abandonment of slavery, whatever else it 
embraces, say to him that he may come to me with you." 

This would have led to movements that would have re- 
sulted in peace but for the vital defect — the Confederate lead- 
ers were not seeking peace except upon the condition of South- 
ern Independence. Therefore, those two Confederate leaders 
when confronted by Mr. Lincoln's proposition communicated 
to them by Horace Greeley were compelled to admit that 
they had no official authority to negotiate for peace. 

In a private letter dated July 25th, 1864, and addressed 
to Mr. Abram Wakeman, postmaster of New York City, Mr. 
Lincoln said: "The men of the South recently (and probably 
still) at Niagara Falls tell us distinctly that they are in the 
confidential employment of the Rebellion, and they tell us as 
distinctly that they are not empowered to offer terms of peace. 
Does any one doubt that what they are empowered to do is 
to assist in selecting and arranging a candidate and a platform 
for the Chicago convention?" 

This letter shows that Mr, Lincoln fully understood the 
purposes for which the Confederate commissioners were at 
Niagara Falls and that the peace proposition which Mr. Gree- 
ley so zealously espoused was but another one of the many 
skillfully constructed schemes by which the Confederate leaders 
sought to secure from Mr. Lincoln a recognition of the Con- 
federacy which would be embarrassing to him and helpful to 
them at the capitals of foreign nations. Occurring as it did 
during the dark and dismal days of the Presidential campaign 
of 1864 it would have been inestimably harmful to the Union 
cause but for the skill and promptness wath which it was 
exposed by the President's prompt reply. It is probable that 
in all the country Horace Greeley was the only great man 
who, at such a time, could have been led into such an ambush 
of the enemy. 

It is interesting to note that it was just at this time of 
peculiar need that there came to Mr. Lincoln information 
which under God was most sustaining and helpful to him, in 



476 LATEST LIGHT ON ABRAHAM LINCOLN 

his peculiarly difficult work. Direct from the Confederate 
capital, as I have elsewhere fully explained, Mr. Gilmore had 
brought to the President the declarations of Jefferson Davis 
respecting his determination to submit to no terms of peace 
which did not include the independence of the South. With 
this knowledge which he knew would soon be communicated 
to the millions throughout the loyal states, Mr. Lincoln was 
comforted and sustained, as was Elijah beneath the juniper 
tree, by the ministration of the celestial messenger. 

There is no reasonable explanation of the contradictory 
characteristics in Mr. Greeley's nature. He was merciless as 
well as masterful in the use of his facile pen. With a severity 
that made the heart quiver he piled his maledictions upon the 
institution of slavery and upon those identified with it. But 
he seemed to be insensible to the unutterable anguish which 
his pen inflicted upon the hearts of true, brave, loyal Union 
men who were not less opposed to slavery than was he, but 
who differed from him concerning minor features of that 
question. He could not endure the thought "of the needless 
effusion of blood," but would deliberately and without com- 
punction, pierce with a thousand pains the hearts of as true 
and loyal men as ever wore the uniform or carried the seal 
of office. He seemed utterly indifferent to the pleas that were 
made for forbearance toward President Lincoln, who, as the 
world now sees, was guided by infinite wisdom in the course 
he pursued. Mr, Lincoln's heart was as tender as a loving 
mother to'w -i even his most malignant enemy, and he de- 
plored the Si--dding of blood quite as fully as did Horace 
Greeley, or any other human being. 

The life led by Mr. Greeley was singularly adapted to 
accentuate these qualities. Each denunciation of slavery 
seemed to fill his heart with a spirit of bitterness and cause 
him to pour out the vials of his wrath upon the devoted heads 
of public officials and army officers who failed to win his ap- 
probation. He dipped his pen in vitriol when writing against 
slavery, and by the force of habit, when commenting on the 



LINCOLN AND HORACE GREELEY 477 

attitudes and activities of our good President his hand auto- 
matically sought the same bottle in which he had found the 
liquid to his liking when denouncing slavery. 

No one will question Mr. Greeley's loyalty to his convic- 
tions; but those of us who knew him well will agree that 
he was constitutionally incompetent to reach right conclu- 
sions with reference to practical, abstract propositions relative 
to which he had strong preferences. Perhaps, to say frankly 
that Mr. Greeley was defective in judgment would be more 
readily and generally understood. An artist would possibly 
say that he was overstocked with perspective but defective in 
intermediate details. In personal affairs he was, as a rule, 
wise and discreet. He began with nothing and learned that 
wealth, strength and influence were attained by increment. 
But in public affairs he would fix his eye upon some great 
object which he believed should be attained and when the 
goal was reached by the patient and persevering efforts of 
others, he simply knew he was at the point he had sought 
to reach, and regarded the achievement as the result of his 
far-seeing wisdom, ability and skill in execution. He would 
recognize a possible achievement as desirable in governmental 
affairs and until it was obtained he would accuse the govern- 
ment of tardiness and denounce those in authority without 
inquiring the cause of delay. With his meager knowledge 
of conditions he would pronounce emphatic judgment against 
the acts of others who, unlike himself, were familiar with all 
the facts connected with the affair. 

A striking illustration of these characteristics of Horace 
Greeley, which the present generation should understand, is 
found in his attitude to the question of national finances, not 
only during the years of the rebellion, but also during the 
troublesome period of reconstruction. 

During the rebellion the enormous cost of prosecuting the 
war was far greater than the amount of hard money (gold and 
silver) which it was possible for the government to secure. 
Mr. Lincoln's Secretary of the Treasury, Hon. Salmon P. 



478 LATEST LIGHT ON ABRAHAM LINCOLN 

Chase, found that his predecessor in office had, by skillful 
manipulation, compelled him to confront the enormous ex- 
penses of the war with an empty treasury. Therefore, it 
became necessary to issue redeemable paper currency for the 
payment of which, at as early a period as possible, and in hard 
money, the national government was responsible. This paper 
money became, throughout the nation, the medium of ex- 
change in the transaction of all private business, and nearly 
all the business of the national government. 

Gold and silver money was automatically withdrawn from 
circulation, and rose to a high premium as the amount of 
paper money was increased. It was provided that at as early 
a date as possible the government would redeem its paper 
currency with hard money, and with the same medium would 
meet its own financial obligations. This was designated as 
"the resumption of specie payment," and to accomplish that 
result was the greatest problem of the government after 
the close of the rebellion. 

The Congressional Record shows that General James A. 
Garfield, who was at that time a member of Congress from 
Ohio, a favorite son of the Buckeye state, and was looked 
upon as the coming man, did not participate to any consid- 
erable extent in the discussions and proceedings of Congress 
respecting reconstruction. Some of us who were deeply in- 
terested in the future career of this talented and highly cul- 
tured young statesman, remonstrated with him because of his 
seeming neglect of passing opportunities to attract the atten- 
tion and win the favor of the nation. To these expressions 
of friendly solicitude General Garfield replied: "The great 
question which this war will require the American statesmen 
to understand is not Reconstruction, but Finance — how to 
pay the nation's debts and how to resume specie payment ; and 
that is the question I am now studying, and which I hope at 
the time of need thoroughly to understand." 

That answer was not fully satisfactory to us young men, 
but in due time the financial world and the governments of 



LINCOLN AND HORACE GREELEY 479 

earth were astonished by General Garfield's perfect familiarity 
with the whole financial problem of the nation and his wise 
leadership in the settlement of that great problem growing out 
of the war. It was my privilege to sit with enraptured soul 
and listen to that really marvelous speech by which that strong 
advocate of protection won for himself a voluntary tender 
of membership in the Free Trade Cobden Club of London; 
and I then understood the significance of General Garfield's 
earlier statements respecting his diligent and tireless investi- 
gation of financial problems. 

And while General Garfield and other far-seeing American 
statesmen were thus studying the great financial problem of 
the nation; while the government was exercising its every 
power and taxing to the limit all its wisdom and resources to 
meet the nation's current needs, and at the same time provide 
for the earliest possible resumption of specie payment, Horace 
Greeley was very active, not in a diligent study of the financial 
problem but in publishing imperious demands for the imme- 
diate resumption of specie payment. "Resume! Resume!" 
was his imperative demand, and "the way to resume, is to 
resume," so constantly appeared in the columns of the Tribune 
that it became a byword throughout the nation, and is, even 
yet, in a paraphrase form used in jocose demands for reaching 
the unattainable. 

For several hours I sat by Mr. Greeley's side, on a sofa, 
in the national House of Representatives, and listened to his 
emphatic statements with reference to governmental ques- 
tions. It was during the closing months of the war when it 
required nearly three dollars in paper money to purchase one 
dollar in gold or silver. During that conversation he vehe- 
mently demanded a return to specie payment and said: "I 
do not believe any man is fit to be Secretary of the Treasury 
who cannot resume specie payment within thirty days after 
the war closes." 

I listened to that declaration of Mr. Greeley with reference 
to the resumption of specie payment with unspeakable aston- 



48o LATEST LIGHT ON ABRAHAM LINCOLN 

ishment. It required no considerable knowledge of the prac- 
tical affairs of government to make apparent the utter im- 
possibility of the achievement which he so confidently and 
emphatically declared to be attainable. When those words 
were spoken by the great New York editor, William Pitt 
Fessenden, the successor of Salmon P. Chase, had charge of 
the Treasury portfolio of the government. He was suc- 
ceeded in that position by Hugh McCullough, a man of tran- 
scendent ability and thoroughly familiar with the subject of 
national finance. And through all the administration of 
Andrew Johnson, the eight years of General Grant, and a por- 
tion of the administration of R. B, Hayes, from 1865 to 
1879, fifteen years in all, the government struggled con- 
stantly, under the leadership of our greatest financiers, to 
reach the goal which Mr. Greeley, with vehemence, declared 
could be attained in thirty days. 

The resumption of specie payment was reached during the 
administration of President Hayes, with that masterful finan- 
cier and statesman — Hon. John Sherman — as Secretary of the 
Treasury. And that achievement, fifteen years after the close 
of the war, caused Mr. Sherman to be regarded as one of 
the ablest financiers in the world and came very near placing 
him in the presidential chair. But that magnificent achieve- 
ment seemed to Mr. Greeley, even when the war was still in 
progress, as a work to be accomplished in thirty days. He 
had no patience with those who were engaged in making neces- 
sary preparation for resumption. He could not wait for the 
government to accumulate sufBcient gold to make possible the 
redemption of its paper money. 

As in 1 86 1, while the country was without an army that 
could safely advance against the Confederate forces, Mr. 
Greeley imperatively demanded an immediate forward move- 
ment, so in 1865 he insisted that the government should make 
even exchange of specie for paper money when there was no 
specie with which to make that exchange. It was not difficult 



LINCOLN AND HORACE GREELEY 481 

for Mr. Lincoln patiently to bear with Mr. Greeley and give 
his opinions the consideration which was due; but coupled 
with the defects in Mr. Greeley's intellect was an imperious 
dominating spirit that caused the President not only serious 
embarrassment but excruciating pain. He was unwilling to 
share with others the privilege of conference with the Presi- 
dent, but insisted upon being his only counsellor respecting 
many important matters relative to which he had but limited 
information. He was like the boy who, while riding horse- 
back with his brother, with petulance exclaimed: "If one of 
us would get off there would be more room for me." 

Additional light upon the characteristics of Mr. Greeley 
which caused President Lincoln so much needless embarrass- 
ment and suffering is found in the following statement in the 
autobiography of Dr. Andrew D. White. In writing of Mr. 
Greeley as a member of the New York Constitutional Conven- 
tion in 1867, Dr. White says: 

"Mr. Greeley was at first all-powerful. . . . For a few 
days he had everything his own way. But he soon proved 
to be so erratic a leader that his influence was completely lost, 
and after a few sessions there was hardly any member with 
less real power to influence the judgments of his colleagues." 
Dr. White tells of Mr. Greeley's imperious, dictatorial 
bearing toward other members of the convention, and of his 
profane denunciations of some who voted contrary to his 
wishes. Not content with his opportunities to complain and 
grumble in the convention he filled the columns of the Tribune 
with his harmful criticisms until, as Dr. White says, "The 
convention became thoroughly though unjustly discredited 
throughout the state and indeed throughout the country." Mr. 
Greeley finally came to approve the work of the convention 
and sought by strong editorials in the Tribune to secure its 
adoption by the people, "but it was all in vain. The unfavor- 
able impression had been too widely and too deeply made, and 
the result was that the new Constitution when submitted to 



482 LATEST LIGHT ON ABRAHAM LINCOLN 

the people was ignominiously voted down and the whole sum- 
mer's work of the Convention went for nothing.'' ^* 

The following is Mr. Greeley's own testimony concerning 
the matters herein referred to: "It is quite probable that, had 
a popular election been held at any time during the year fol- 
lowing the Fourth of July, 1862, on the question of continu- 
ing the war or arresting it on the best attainable terms, a ma- 
jority would have voted for peace : while it is highly probable 
that a still larger majority would have voted against eman- 
cipation. From an early hour of the struggle the public mind 
slowly and steadily gravitated toward the conclusion that the 
Rebellion was vulnerable only or mainly through slavery ; but 
that conclusion was scarcely reached by a majority before the 
occurrence of the New York riots, in July, 1863. The Presi- 
dent, though widely reproached with tardiness and reluctance 
in taking up the gauge plainly thrown down by the Slave 
Power, was probably ahead of the majority of the people of 
the loyal states in definitely accepting the issue of Emancipa- 
tion or Disunion. Having taken a long step in the right direc- 
tion, he never retracted nor seemed to regret it; though he 
sometimes observed that the beneficial results of the Emanci- 
pation policy were neither so signal nor so promptly realized 
as its sanguine promoters had anticipated." ^* 

It is unfortunate that it required the tragic death of the 
great and good President, the lapse of time, and the lessons 
of many years to cause Mr. Greeley to realize the marvelous 
wisdom and statesmanship of the man to whose lips, while 
living, he so constantly held the cup of bitterness. It seems 
a poor atonement for Mr. Greeley's sins of caustic criticism 
thus to place a wreath upon the martyr's brow. But what 
more at that late day could he do? The great lesson taught 
by what I have here recorded is to avoid the evils by which 
the life of one of our greatest men was so seriously marred. 

It is quite certain that the infelicity with which the life 

1* Autobiography of Andrew D. White, Vol. I, pp. 142-146. 
^* Horace Greeley, The American Conflict, VoL II., pp. 254-255. 



LINCOLN AND HORACE GREELEY 483 

of President Lincoln was embittered has wrought a great and 
beneficent reform in our country. When the great heart which 
those infeHcities pierced with poignant pain suddenly ceased 
to beat, the pages of history became luminous and in that 
light the great worth of Abraham Lincoln was seen, and the 
cruelties inflicted upon him sought in vain to hide from 
the displeasure of humanity. The indignities which marred the 
pages of the London Punch suddenly became vocal with the 
wail of sorrow which Tom Taylor, in his anguish, gave to 
the world in plaintive poetry. And in our own land the hearts 
which were unrelenting while Mr. Lincoln lived, softened to 
gentleness when he died, and the harsh and rasping voices 
of criticism mellowed in eulogy and praise. When "the Lord 
turned and looked upon Peter," the disciple who had thrice 
denied his Lord "went out and wept bitterly." 

And into that same seclusion of sorrowful regret there 
fled a multitude of the unreasonable and unreasoning fanatics 
who, prompted by Satanic influences, piled maledictions in- 
stead of merited commendation and praise upon the Lord's 
chosen chieftain of the nation. And from that valley of hu- 
miliation, where causeless criticism of the great and good 
President appeared in all its hideous hatefulness, the nation 
has ascended to a height of beatific vision of the rights of 
rulers and the obligations of those who have chosen them to 
authority. 



VII 

WADE-DAVIS MANIFESTO 

THE revolt against President Lincoln which was of all 
such demonstrations the most painful to him and the 
most dangerous to the Union cause was what is 
known in history as "The Wade-Davis Manifesto." The 
leader in that revolt was Hon. Henry Winter Davis, a mem- 
ber of Congress from Maryland from 1855 to 1861, and from 
1863 until his death on December 30th, 1865. 

Mr. Davis was an exceptionally strong personality — a man 
of great intellectual force, of wide range of scholarship, and 
intensely and unyieldingly purposeful in all his relations to 
public matters. High spirited and of violent temper, he was 
imperious in bearing, and being one of the most gifted and 
accomplished orators in Congress, and a republican from a 
slave state, he exerted a very great influence in Congress. His 
aggressive nature swept him along into extremes in opinion 
and in speech. It would have been unlike Mr. Davis to char- 
acterize any man or measure as unwise. That would have 
been a term too weak to express his haughty disdain of any 
matter of which he did not heartily approve. The heroic 
warfare which he waged against slavery and secession was 
of that extreme denunciatory character which developed and 
strengthened the distinctive and dominant characteristics of 
his nature. Therefore, when he had occasion to differ from 
the President, his opposition was expressed in severe denuncia- 
tion which unfortunately was carried to such extremes as 
greatly to annoy Mr. Lincoln and embarrass the administra- 
tion. 

484 



WADE-DAVIS MANIFESTO 485 

At the period of which I am now writing the status of 
the states in rebelHon had come to be a question of overshad- 
owing importance. Upon that question the party in power 
was sharply and seriously divided. The radical element 
claimed that the states which joined in the secession move- 
ment and in rebellion had thereby lost their identity as mem- 
bers of the Union; and that they could be restored to their 
former standing only by processes similar to those by which 
territories were admitted into the Union as states. 

As private secretary of the Hon. James M. Ashley, who 
was quite prominent and influential at that time, and who was 
one of the leading advocates of views held by the most radical 
of the Union party, I became thoroughly familiar with their 
plan of reconstruction, and with the arguments by which their 
views were defended. General Ashley, by changing his vote 
on the Constitutional Amendment abolishing and prohibit- 
ing slavery when that measure was defeated in the House, 
had obtained charge of that amendment, when upon his mo- 
tion it was for the second time brought before the House, 
and as mover of the motion made the first speech in the debate 
which followed. 

At his home in Toledo, Ohio, in an extended Interview, he 
conferred with me relative to his views on that subject, and 
I read with care the manuscript of his speech upon that amend- 
ment before it was delivered in the House. Thus, at the 
beginning of the controversy, I became thoroughly ac- 
cjuainted with the radical programme of reconstruction. Mr. 
Davis was the leading advocate of that doctrine in the House, 
and Senator Benjamin F. Wade, of Ohio, was his closest and 
most zealous associate in that work. 

President Lincoln was pronouncedly opposed to this theory 
of reconstruction, claiming that the war was being conducted 
as an emphatic declaration that the states had no power to 
renounce their allegiance to the national government, or to 
destroy or forfeit their standing in the Union ; and that when 
the rebellion was suppressed, the general government should 



486 LATEST LIGHT ON ABRAHAM LINCOLN 

by wisely chosen methods restore to the several states their 
former rights and privileges in the Union. 

A man possessing the statesmanlike forecast for which 
President Lincoln was distinguished, would not fail to realize 
the importance of taking definite position on the important 
question of reconstruction as early as would be advisable. 
Therefore, in his message to Congress, December 8th, 1863, 
he introduced the subject, stating with very great clearness 
his views relative to the matter, and presenting arguments of 
irresistible force in defense of his views on the question. 
Every member of his Cabinet, with the exception of Mr. 
Chase, was in favor of the policy which the President in his 
message indicated as the one which he would pursue. There 
had been in portions of the speeches of leading members of 
Congress, and also in some resolutions introduced by them, 
some indefinite expressions of conviction relative to the status 
of the states in rebellion. Senator Charles Sumner had, in a 
resolution, spoken of "State Suicide" in such a way as to indi- 
cate that his views on reconstruction were not in harmony 
with those which subsequently were advocated by the Presi- 
dent in the message above referred to. 

While the message was being read in the two Houses of 
Congress it received unusually marked attention. There was 
a solemn hush when it launched boldly out upon the untried 
and unknown sea of reconstruction. Some of the great lead- 
ers of the radical portion of the Union party leaned forward 
in their seats and seemed intent upon catching every word 
which fell from the lips of the reading clerk. This was con- 
tinued until it became evident that the President would take 
the more conservative view of the subject, at which point 
extremists like Mr. Sumner became restless, and some by 
their manner indicated impatience. 

But so definite and clear was the statement of the Presi- 
dent's views, and so tremendous was the strength of the argu- 
ments by which they were defended, that not even the ex- 
tremists were able to appear inattentive while that portion of 



WADE-DAVIS MANIFESTO 487 

the message was being read. The influence of the reading of 
the message in both House and Senate was scarcely less than 
marvelous. The recognized adherents of the kind and con- 
servative policy of the President listened throughout with 
marked intensity, and no manifestation of disapproval was 
anywhere to be seen. 

At the close of the reading of the message Mr. Chand- 
ler, the big, burly senator from Michigan, was delighted. The 
deep-toned voice of Mr. Sumner expressed with emphasis his 
joyous satisfaction. Mr. Dixon and Reverdy Johnson said the 
message was satisfactory. Henry Wilson, "in the overflowing 
kindness of his great big heart," requested the President's pri- 
vate secretary "to tell the President that he had struck another 
great blow, God bless him !" Quite as pronounced was the en- 
dorsement received from leading members of the House. Hon. 
George S. Boutwell, who was regarded as the leader of the 
extreme antislavery New England sentiment, said of the mes- 
sage: "It is a very able and shrewd paper, and it is all right." 
Owen Lovejoy, of Illinois, was outspoken and emphatic in his 
approval of the position taken by the President, and with 
characteristic religious fervor said he could "see on the moun- 
tains the feet of one bringing good tidings." Of like char- 
acter, and quite as emphatic, were the expressions of approval 
from General Garfield, Francis W. Kellogg, and H. T. Blow. 
Even Horace Greeley, who always gave approval of Mr. Lin- 
coln's acts with strange reluctance, being on the floor of the 
House when the message was read, declared in characteristic 
language that it was "devilish good." All day long and into 
the night the Executive Mansion was thronged by delighted 
members of the Senate and the House, army officers, promi- 
nent politicians from every portion of the country, and news- 
paper men galore, all expressing their unreserved and unquali- 
fied approval of the policy announced by the President, and 
his unanswerable argument in its support. 

A still stronger indication of the impression the President's 
message had made was seen in the changed appearance and 



488 LATEST LIGHT ON ABRAHAM LINCOLN 

manner of the leading members of the two branches of Con- 
gress, and especially of the Union members. It was like the 
"clearing up" in autumn after dark and threatening clouds 
had for several days covered the sky, and given evidence of 
approaching storms. This burst of sunshine lighted up and 
softened the strong and classic features of the great Massa- 
chusetts senator, which, though they did not quite reach the 
point of wearing a pleasing smile, were without any trace of 
the determined expression they usually bore. The same 
light, like the rising sun in Indian summer, glorified the face 
of Hon. Henry Wilson, Mr. Sumner's colleague in the senate. 
Most marked of all were the changes in the very thoughtful 
and strong features of Hon. Reverdy Johnson of Maryland, 
who was probably the ablest lawyer in the senate. His slop- 
ing shoulders were elevated, and he walked with an erectness 
and springing step which I never noticed in him at any other 
time. 

The coming man of the House, the thorough scholar, the 
untiring student and able advocate, General James A. Garfield, 
freely expressed his great satisfaction at the position taken by 
the President and his admiration of his exceedingly able argu- 
ment in defense of that position. And so in both branches of 
the national legislature, there was a spirit of exuberance and 
settled satisfaction which I saw at no other time during the 
five years of my connection with the legislative branch of the 
government. It seemed that the millennium had come and 
that the anthem, "Peace on earth, good will to men," again 
was being chanted by the heavenly choir. 

But the millennium had not come, and the celestial music 
soon was smothered by a rumbling sound that seemed to 
presage a coming conflict. The first tangible indication of 
antagonism to the reconstruction policy of the administration 
was in a motion by Henry Winter Davis, in the House, that 
the portion of the President's message relating to reconstruc- 
tion be referred to a special committee of which he was made 
chairman. This motion was adopted by the House without 



WADE-DAVIS MANIFESTO 489 

hesitation, or inquiry. The referring of the reconstruction 
portions of the President's message to a committee which was 
known to be dominated by Mr, Davis, did not at the time 
attract sufficient attention greatly to disturb those who were 
confidently expecting a harmonious and progressive session of 
Congress, and a sweeping victory at the polls in November. 

It was known, however, that Mr. Davis, at the slightest 
provocation, real or imaginary, was certain to assail the Pres- 
ident with characteristic severity, but the nation-wide ap- 
proval of the message seemed sufficiently emphatic and lauda- 
tory to hush into satisfying silence all hostile and harmful 
criticism. The progress of the nation's arms on every field 
so attracted public attention and stimulated patriotic interest 
and enthusiasm that elaborate preparations for a factional 
assault upon the President was systematically conducted by 
Mr. Davis and his followers without arousing any general 
apprehension of danger to the Union cause. 

At length the Davis committee presented its report upon 
the portion of the message of the President which had been 
referred to it. That report came in the form of a Recon- 
struction Bill skillfully prepared by Mr. Davis, and in direct 
and flagrant conflict with the reconstruction policy of the 
President, as set forth and advocated in his annual message 
presented to Congress at the beginning of the session. That 
reconstruction measure was supported by Mr. Davis in a speech 
of great power and eloquence, but of such animus that it 
aroused the adherents of the President's policy. The bill con- 
tained the following preamble : 

"Whereas, The so-called Confederate states are a public 
enemy, waging an unjust war, whose injustice is so glaring 
that they have no right to claim the mitigation of the extreme 
rights of war which are accorded by modern usage to an 
enemy who has a right to consider the war a just one ; and, 

"Whereas, None of the states which, by a regularly re- 
corded majority of its citizens, have joined the so-called South- 
ern Confederacy can be considered and treated as entitled to 



490 LATEST LIGHT ON ABRAHAM LINCOLN 

be represented in Congress or to take any part In the political 
government of the Union." . . . 

This preamble, as is plainly seen, contains all the vitriol 
of the extreme "State Suicide" policy of the radicals. It was 
speedily rejected by the House, but the bill itself, which 
throughout all its sections was dominated by the spirit of the 
preamble, was passed by the decisive vote of seventy-four to 
fifty-nine. While the discussion of this bill was in progress 
in the House, President Lincoln made no effort in any way 
to prevent Its approval. When it reached the senate it was 
there introduced by Senator Wade, of Ohio, who had charge 
of the measure while it was under consideration in that body. 

Mr. Wade was one of the most widely known and highly 
esteemed members of the senate. He was somewhat slow in 
winning nation-wide fame, for early In his senatorial career 
he was the colleague of the princely Salmon P. Chase, so 
magnificent In personal appearance, so manifestly strong in 
intellect, so profound in his knowledge of law, and so force- 
ful in public address as to eclipse most of the other anti- 
slavery senators. But "Bluff Ben Wade," as he came to be 
designated, moved steadily to the front and by his great per- 
sonal courage, pronounced radical convictions and rough but 
tremendously forceful statements of his views, soon came to 
be held by his antislavery associates in very high regard, and 
to be respected and feared by those who disapproved of his 
convictions. 

He was a pronounced radical, and of all the members of 
the senate he, perhaps, was the most outspoken and severe 
in his hostility to all measures which he disapproved. He 
was a fitting associate of Henry Winter Davis, and together 
they constituted a force not easily resisted. 

The Davis Reconstruction Bill was amended in the senate, 
and at length submitted to a conference committee of the two 
branches of Congress, all of which occupied so extended a 
period of time that It was not until the fourth of July, 1864, 



WADE-DAVIS MANIFESTO 491 

the last day of the session, that the measure was finally passed 
and submitted to the President for his approval. 

During all the prolonged consideration of this very ob- 
jectionable measure in the senate, the President pursued the 
same policy of non-interference which had been observed by 
him while the bill was before the House. I call special atten- 
tion to this fact because of the charges which were made 
against the President for his course respecting this measure. 
It is no unusual thing for a President to be very active and 
influential in securing congressional action for the furtherance 
of the policy of his administration. Indeed it is expected of 
him as the Chief Magistrate, and the official and responsible 
leader of his party, that he will exercise all suitable authority 
and influence to secure the enactment of laws which are in 
accordance with the policy of the party in power. 

It is possible that Mr. Lincoln's course in avoiding all in- 
terference with the action of Congress relative to this measure 
was attributable to the fact that reconstruction was a new issue 
which had grown out of the Rebellion, and was without any 
historical precedents. Therefore, he regarded it as fitting, 
carefully to determine upon a policy in harmony with his 
convictions, and having presented that policy in his official 
communication to Congress to leave the legislative body to 
take such action as in the judgment of its members the exi- 
gencies of the occasion required. Whatever were the influ- 
ences by which he was controlled, it is certain that his course 
respecting this measure when it was before Congress was 
entirely unobjectionable. The President had in no way inti- 
mated what would be his action with reference to the bill 
when it should be presented for his signature. It was evi- 
dent, however, that the leading champions of that measure 
were somewhat apprehensive concerning his course, for, dur- 
ing the last hour of the session, while he was engaged in his 
room adjacent to the Senate Chamber in signing bills as they 
were passed. Senator Sumner of Massachusetts, and Repre- 
sentative Boutwell, of the same state, were standing near his 



492 LATEST LIGHT ON ABRAHAM LINCOLN 

desk and were carefully observing what he did. Bill after 
bill was laid upon his table and received his signature, but 
when the Wade-Davis Reconstruction Bill came to his hand, 
he quietly laid it to one side and proceeded with his work. 

This action was observed with evident disappointment by 
Mr. Sum ler and Mr. Boutwell, but they courteously refrained 
from any remark respecting what he had done, and soon with- 
drew. 

About this time bluff and rough "Zach" Chandler, of 
Michigan, who had entered the President's room, rudely 
blurted out a direct inquiry of the President as to the course 
he intended to pursue relative to that bill. With his customary 
courtesy and calmness, Mr. Lincoln replied: "This bill has 
been placed before me a few minutes before Congress ad- 
journs. It is a matter of too much importance to be swal- 
lowed in that way." 

With some show of feeling, Mr. Chandler declared that to 
veto the bill would be harmful to the party in the northwest. 
A brief argument ensued between the President and the Michi- 
gan senator, and when Mr. Chandler referred to the Eman- 
cipation Proclamation as an interference with slavery in the 
states, the President replied: "I conceive that I may in an 
emergency do things on military grounds which cannot be 
done constitutionally by Congress." When Mr. Chandler had 
withdrawn, the President addressing the members of his Cabi- 
net, who were present, said: *T do not see how any of us 
now can deny and contradict what we have always said, that 
Congress has no constitutional power over slavery in the 
states." This sentiment was approved by every member of 
the Cabinet who at the time was present. The President fur- 
ther said: "This bill and the position of these gentlemen seem, 
to me, in asserting that the insurrectionary states are no longer 
in the Union, to make the fatal admission that states, when- 
ever they please, may of their own motion, dissolve their con- 
nection with the Union. Now we cannot survive that admis- 



WADE-DAVIS MANIFESTO 493 

sion, I am convinced. If that be true, I am not President; 
these gentlemen are not Congress." 

The President and his constitutional advisers logically 
discriminated between an act of Congress respecting a state 
constitution and the Emancipation Proclamation which was 
an act of the Executive, and a war measure, adopted, as was 
declared in the Proclamation itself, "upon military necessity." 

In some way it very soon became known in the House 
that the President had not attached his signature to the Wade- 
Davis Bill and the leading advocates of that measure were at 
once thrown into a state of excitement and anger. But noth- 
ing could be done; and when at length the time for adjourn- 
ment came, and members were anxious to complete their work 
and hasten to their homes, Mr. Davis was favored by a very 
limited audience, when standing upon his desk in the House, 
pale with anger, he denounced with dramatic fervor the action 
of the President relative to his favorite measure. 

The President was not indifferent to the indications of 
serious disturbance and division in his party. He expressed 
his apprehension that the friends of the measure he had re- 
fused to sign would "do harm" in their denunciation of his 
course. But there was not the slightest indication of any 
faltering or fear upon his part. However, according to his 
usual custom of taking the people into his confidence, he imme- 
diately issued a proclamation in which he stated at length, 
and with great clearness, the provisions of the bill and the 
reasons which had caused him to refuse to give it his ap- 
proval. As the bill was passed only a few minutes before 
the adjournment there was no time for the preparation of a 
veto measure, and he therefore followed the course which 
many Presidents have pursued and gave the measure what is 
known as a pocket veto; that is, he simply refrained from 
attaching his signature to the bill, which was equivalent to a 
veto. 

All this turmoil would soon have passed away but for the 
insuppressiblc contentiousness of Wade and Davis, who re- 



494 LATEST LIGHT ON ABRAHAM LINCOLN 

sponded to the President's proclamation above referred to by 
what is known as the "Wade-Davis Manifesto," which they 
pubHshed in the New York Tribune of August 5th, 1864. A 
prominent feature of that Manifesto was its violent assault 
upon President Lincoln for the exercise of his constitutional 
prerogative in defeating, by his veto, a measure which he 
fully believed was not only harmful in its nature, but was also 
in conflict with the national constitution, and with common 
law. The Manifesto was addressed "To the Supporters of the 
Government," and began by saying: 

"We have read without surprise, but not without indigna- 
tion, the proclamation of the President of July 8th, 1864. 
The supporters of the administration are responsible to the 
country for its conduct; and it is their right and duty to check 
the encroachments of the Executive on the authority of Con- 
gress, and to require it to confine itself to its proper sphere." 

The first phrase in the Manifesto is an insinuation that 
its authors expected some act of the President like that of 
which they make complaint. The next phrase declares their 
"indignation." The mere mention of these portions of the 
Manifesto is sufficient to cause one to realize the exceedingly 
infelicitous spirit in which that Manifesto was prepared and 
published. But its chief indictment of the President is where 
it speaks of "the encroachments of the Executive on Con- 
gress," and maintains that the Executive should be required 
"to confine itself to its proper sphere." Remembering that 
these two men were able and distinguished lawyers and public 
men of large experience, their unqualified charge that the 
conduct of the President was an encroachment of the Execu- 
tive upon the rights of the legislative branch of government, 
should be considered in the light of the statements already 
made respecting the very considerate and faultless course pur- 
sued by the President while this Reconstruction Bill was under 
consideration in the House and Senate. Certainly the accu- 
sation of encroachment could not apply to any act of Mr. 
Lincoln before the passage of this bill. It must, therefore, 



WADE-DAVIS MANIFESTO 495 

refer to his veto of the measure, or to his proclamation, or 
to both. Now there is in the proclamation not one utter- 
ance or intimation that could fairly be construed into an 
encroachment upon the rights and the prerogatives of the legis- 
lative branch of government. That accusation, therefore, 
must refer to the President's refusal to make the measure 
effective by his signature. It seems incredible that such able 
and learned men should have gone before the nation making 
such a serious charge against the President, for in vetoing 
a measure of which he disapproved he was unquestionably 
exercising his rightful prerogative. The right of veto is as 
fully guaranteed to the President by the national Constitu- 
tion as is the right of members of Congress to introduce, 
advocate and vote for measures which they desire to have 
enacted. No one, and least of all the President himself, for 
a moment questioned the right of Mr. Davis to prepare this 
bill and advocate its adoption, or the right of Mr. Wade to 
support it. And the insinuation that in preventing that ob- 
jectionable measure from becoming a law, the Executive had 
encroached upon the rights and prerogatives of the legislative 
branch of government was too absurd to merit respectful con- 
sideration but for the high standing of its authors. 

However, in spite of the great service which these gen- 
tlemen rendered the cause of civic righteousness, their conduct 
in this case should not be forgotten, but should be remem- 
bered and held up as an illustration of the utterly unreason- 
able extent to which great men may go when moved by pas- 
sion and animosity. Viewed in the light of the almost unani- 
mous approval which the President's reconstruction policy 
receive! when presented in his annual message it is passing 
strange that within six brief months so great a change had 
been wrought as to make possible the passage of the Davis 
Reconstruction Bill, and the unseemly and harmful imbroglio 
which plunged the government and the country into such 
humiliation and peril. The lowest level of this revolt was 
reached in the following portion of the Manifesto: 



496 LATEST LIGHT ON ABRAHAM LINCOLN 

"The President by preventing this Bill from becoming a 
law, holds the electoral vote of the Rebel states at the dicta- 
tion of his personal ambition. ... If electors for President 
be allowed to be chosen in either of those states a sinister 
light will be cast on the motives which induced the President 
to hold for naught the will of Congress rather than his gov- 
ernment in Louisiana and Arkansas." 

That insinuation caused President Lincoln the most ex- 
cruciating pain. It was too base to be answered and too 
serious to be ignored. He could only refer to it in private 
conversation, as he sometimes did, in terms of deep regret, 
but never with anger or resentment. The astonishing char- 
acter of this assault upon the President appears when it is 
remembered that it occurred at a time when it could not pos- 
sibly accomplish and good and could not fail to result in harm 
by adding immensely to the perils which were threatening 
the nation's life. Congress had adjourned and the veto of 
the Davis Bill was beyond recall. The President had been 
renominated by the national convention of his party, and his 
re-election was necessary to the preservation of the Union. 
The Confederate-favoring forces of the loyal states were all 
arrayed against him and were rapidly gathering into their 
ranks the people who were weary of the war and had been 
led to believe that peace by negotiation and without further 
bloodshed could be secured. LTnder this delusion multitudes 
of loyal people were forsaking the Union party and uniting 
with the opposition, and the only possible influence of the 
Wade-Davis Manifesto was to strengthen the opposition to 
the President and in like measure increase the perils of the 
nation. 

With heart and soul, by voice and pen, I was struggling 
with the Union forces to aid in arresting the tide of defection 
from the President's supporters when that denunciatory Mani- 
festo was published and was greeted with wild enthusiasm 
by the cohorts of disunion in all the loyal states. In remem- 
brance I can feel today the pain that filled my soul when I 



WADE-DAVIS MANIFESTO 497 

read that Manifesto and witnessed its appalling influence upon 
the public mind. In common with other Union workers 
throughout the land I could not refrain from crying out, "Oh, 
why did they do it ; what good could they hope to accomplish 
by such methods?" And that cry became nation-wide and 
continued during the weeks that followed. How effective for 
evil that Manifesto proved to be is indicated by the fact that 
within eighteen days after it was published the President and 
the leaders of his party had become convinced that his defeat 
in November was altogether probable. That calamity was 
averted by a providential intervention, an account of which 
appears on other pages of this book, but the mad revolt from 
the disasters of which we so narrowly escaped, should be re- 
membered that we may avoid the spirit that produced it. 

The extent to which great men at that period of agitation 
and strife were influenced by unreasoning prejudice and pas- 
sion is indicated by the fact that many of our most dis- 
tinguished statesmen, even after they had expressed their ap- 
proval of the President's reconstruction policy, as set forth in 
his annual message, aligned themselves with this utterly un- 
reasonable assault upon President Lincoln because of his 
faithful and conscientious discharge of his duty as Chief 
Executive of the nation. 

In view of all this it brings warmth and gladness to the 
heart to read the following from Hon. James M. Ashley, 
which forms a fitting conclusion to this chapter: 

"The first time I called at the White House, after Senator 
Wade and Henry Winter Davis issued their celebrated Mani- 
festo against Mr. Lincoln, the President, as he advanced to 
take my hand, said: 'Ashley, I am glad to see by the papers 
that you refused to sign the Wade and Davis Manifesto.' 

" 'Yes, Mr. President,' I answered, T could not do that,' 
and added, for 

" 'Close as sin and suffering joined 
We march to fate abreast.' 



498 LATEST LIGHT ON ABRAHAM LINCOLN 

"It was a picture as we stood thus, my lips quivering with 
emotion, while tears stood on the eyes of both. On many 
occasions during the darkest hours of our great conflict men 
who were in accord were often in such close touch with each 
other that each could feel the pulse-beat of the other's heart. 

"This incident tells its own story. Mr. Lincoln regarded 
both Mr. Wade and Mr. Davis as able and honest men, and 
he knew they were my warm personal friends. He also knew 
that nothing but a sense of public duty could have separated 
me from them. No one regretted their mistake more than I 
did; and, knowing my close relations to them, Mr. Lincoln 
did not hesitate to speak to me of their mistake in the kindest 
spirit." 

So fully did public sentiment come into harmony with 
President Lincoln that at the next and final session of this, 
the Thirty-ninth Congress, the Davis Reconstruction Bill, 
after a fiery speech in its favor by its author, was on Febru- 
ary 2 1 St, 1865, killed by a vote of 91 to 64. 



VIII 

EXTRACTS FROM AN UNPUBLISHED MANU- 
SCRIPT OF REV. P. D. GURLEY, D.D. 

THE manuscript from which the following selections 
have been taken was secured from Doctor Gurley's 
daughter, Mrs. Emma K. Adams, of Washington, 
D. C. 

One ot the first things Abraham Lincoln did, upon enter- 
ing the White House as President, was to select a church and 
take a pew for his family and himself. He decided on the 
New York Avenue Presbyterian Church, saying in after 
years, "I went there because I like the pastor. Dr. Gurley, 
and because he preached the gospel and let politics alone. I 
get enough politics during the week." The intimacy and 
mutual admiration which existed between the President and 
his pastor is well known. — The Author. 

Jj* S|C 9|C ^ ^ 

One morning, as Mr. Lincoln's pastor and intimate friend, 
I went over to the White House in response to an invitation 
from the President. He had me come over before he had 
his breakfast. The night before we had been together and 
Mr. Lincoln had said: "Doctor, you rise early; so do I; come 
over tomorrow morning about seven o'clock. We can talk 
for an hour before breakfast." This I did, as before stated, 
and after breakfasting with Mrs. Lincoln and exchanging a 
few words in the hall with the President who was about to 
pass up to his office, I started for home. As I passed out of 
the gateway which leads up to the White House and stepped 
on the street I was joined by a member of my congregation. 

499 



500 LATEST LIGHT ON ABRAHAM LINCOLN 

"Why, doctor," said my friend, "it is not nine o'clock; 

what are you doing at the Executive Mansion?" To this I 

repHed, "Mr. Lincoln and I have been having a morning chat." 

"On the war, I suppose?" "Far from it," said I. "V\ e have 

been talking about the state of the soul after death. That is 

a subject of which Mr. Lincoln never tires. I have had a 

great many conversations with him on the subject. This 

morning, however, I was a listener as Mr. Lincoln did all the 

talking." 

***** 

The day before Mr. Lincoln signed and issued the final 
Emancipation Proclamation, I was besieged by persons who 
were anxious to learn something about the proclamation and 
who believed because of my intimacy with Mr. Lincoln I had 
been apprised of its contents. Not a word escaped me con- 
cerning it, and though I knew its contents none were the wiser 
for my knowledge. 

***** 

One day as I was walking through the Capitol, I was joined 
by a gentleman and together we walked over to the senate. 
The conversation led around to Mr. Lincoln. "Doctor," said 
the man, "tell me, is Mr. Lincoln a member of your church?" 
"Mr. Lincoln," I answered, "has never applied for member- 
ship. If he did I would admit him." 



When Mr. Lincoln returned from Richmond, only a very 
short time before his tragic death, he told me he was very 
much pleased with his reception in that city. He said he 
never could forget how kindly he had been received. "Why, 
Doctor," he said, "I walked alone on the street, and any one 
could have shot me from a second story window." 

***** 
One evening about eight o'clock, Mr. Lincoln came down 
the White House stairs and found two or three of the em- 





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EXTRACTS FROM AN UNFINISHED MS. 501 

ployees by the front door. He said, "I want to walk over 
to Secretary Stanton's and would like to have one of you 
walk over with me," One of the men immediately got his 
hat and started off with Mr. Lincoln. As they crossed over 
Pennsylvania Avenue, Mr. Lincoln said: 'T have received a 
great many threatening letters lately, but I don't feel afraid." 

"Mr. President," said his escort, "because you are not 
afraid is no evidence you are free from danger; many a life 
has been sacrificed for want of fear." 

"That's so," said the President. His face looked haggard 
and he walked quite slowly. Secretary Stanton lived on the 
north side of K street, between 13th and 14th streets, not a 
great distance from the Executive Mansion. When they were 
on the steps of the Stanton residence, waiting for the servant 
to answer their ring, Mr. Lincoln said to his escort: "Mr. 
Stanton is sick. I am going up to his room. You wait for 
me in the hall here." 

At this time General Sherman's army was passing through 
the South and Mr. Lincoln was very anxious to confer with 
Mr. Stanton. He was upstairs with him about an hour, and 
when once more on the street he seemed lost in thought. 
Finally, as if thinking aloud he said: "Senator Harlan is a 
very good man." 

"Yes," said the escort, "the Senator is highly spoken of." 
No further conversation took place. In a short time Mr. 
Harlan was appointed Secretary of the Interior, and it is 
probable that his name was suggested to the President by Mr. 
Stanton during that interview. 

***** 
Some one reported to Mr. Lincoln that General Joseph 
Singleton Mosby, of the Confederate Army, had said he would 
cross the Potomac River and attend one of the White House 
levees. If he did, no one ever knew of it but himself. How- 
ever, one morning after a levee, a card was found in a snuff- 



502 LATEST LIGHT GN ABRAHAM LINCOLN 

box in the Green Room on which was written, "J- S. Mosby, 
Colonel C S. A." 



Before the war broke out, brave Admiral Shufeldt, owing 
to the quietness of things, resigned and became captain of a 
vessel that ran from New York to Cuba. When the war 
began Mr. Lincoln recalled him to the navy and he was re- 
stored to his former rank. Mr. Lincoln said to him during 
the war, "Shufeldt, I want you to go down to Mexico, and 
see if you can arrange to have the Negroes colonized down 
there." The Admiral did as requested, met with a very kind 
reception from President Juarez, who offered him the land 
south of Mexico for the purpose Mr. Lincoln had advised, 
and an escort of 75,000 soldiers. The letters that passed be- 
tween Mr. Lincoln and Admiral Shufeldt on this subject were 
said never to have been seen except by four persons, namely, 
Mr. Lincoln, Secretary Seward, President Juarez and Admiral 
Shufeldt, as no record was kept of them owing to their not 
being placed on file in the State Department. 

***** 

One day a Cabinet officer and I had been spending an hour 
with Mr. Lincoln. When the time came for us to depart the 
Secretary said: "Mr. President, I wish you would describe 
the proper manner of telling a story. How is it yours are so 
interesting?" 

"Well," said Mr. Lincoln, "there are two ways of relating 
a story. If you have an auditor who has the time, and is 
inclined to listen, lengthen it out, pour it out slowly as if from 
a jug. If you have a poor listener, hasten it, shorten it, shoot 
it out of a pop-gun." 

***** 

Mr. Lincoln was very much impressed with an address 
made over the coffin of his little son Willie. The day after 
the funeral he wrote me a note and asked me to write it out 
for him so he could give copies to his friends. He often 




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iwM 



EXTRACTS FROM AN UNFINISHED MS. 503 

spoke to me of how he Uked to read it over. This address 
was as follows: "Sad and solemn is the occasion that brings 
us here today. A dark shadow of affliction has fallen upon 
this habitation and upon the hearts of its inmates. The news 
thereof has already gone forth to the extremities of the coun- 
try. The nation has heard it with deep and tender emotion. 
The eye of the nation ib moistened with tears as it turns today 
to the Presidential mansion. The heart of the nation sym- 
pathizes with its chief magistrate while to the unprecedented 
weight of civil care which presses upon him is added the 
burden of this great domestic sorrow, and the prayers of the 
nation ascend to heaven on his behalf and on behalf of his 
weeping family that God's grace may be sufficient for them, 
and that in this hour of sore bereavement and trial they may 
have the presence and succor of Him who said: 'Come unto 
Me all ye that labor and are heavy laden and I will give you 
rest.' Oh, that they may be enabled to lay their heads upon 
His infinite bosom and find, as many other smitten ones have 
found, that He is their truest refuge and strength and a very 
present help in trouble. 

"The beloved youth whose death we now and here lament 
was a child of bright intelligence and of peculiar promise. He 
possessed many excellent qualities of mind and heart which 
greatly endeared him not only to the family circle but to all 
his youthful acquaintances and friends. His mind was active, 
he was inquisitive and conscientious; his disposition was 
amiable and affectionate. His impulses kind and generous; 
his words and manners were gentle and attractive. It is easy 
to see how a child thus endowed could, in the course of eleven 
years entwine himself around the hearts of those who knew 
him best; nor can we wonder that the grief of his affectionate 
mother today is like that of Rachel weeping for her children 
and refusing to be comforted, because they were not. 

"His sickness was an attack of fever threatening from 
the first and painfully productive of mental wandering and 
delirium. All that the tenderest parental care and watching 



504 LATEST LIGHT ON ABRAHAM LINCOLN 

and the most assiduous and skillful medical treatment could 
do was done, and though at times even in the last stages of 
the disease his symptoms were regarded as favorable and in- 
spired a faint and wavering hope of his recovery, still the 
insidious malady pursued its course unchecked, and on Thurs- 
day last, at the hour of five in the afternoon, the golden bowl 
v»'as broken and the emancipated spirit returned to the God who 
gave it. That departure was a sore bereavement to parents 
and brothers, and while they weep they also rejoice in the 
confidence that their loss is his gain, for they believe as well 
they may, that he has gone to Him who said: 'Suffer little 
children to come unto Me and forbid them not, for of such 
is the kingdom of heaven' ; and that now with kindred spirits, 
and with a little brother he never saw on earth, he beholds 
the glory and sings the praises of the Redeemer. Blessed be 
God! 

" 'There is a world above 
Where sorrow is unknown, 
A long eternity of love 
Formed for the good alone. 
And faith beholds the dying here. 
Translated to that glorious sphere.' 

"It is well for us and very comforting on such an occa- 
sion as this to get a clear and scriptural view of the Provi- 
dence of God. His kingdom ruleth over all. All those events 
which in any wise affect our condition and happiness are in 
His hands and at His disposal. Disease and death are His 
messengers; they go forth at His bidding and their fearful 
work is limited or extended according to the good pleasure 
of His will. Not a sparrow falls to the ground without His 
care much less one of the human family, for we are of more 
value than many sparrows. These bereaved parents may be 
sure that their affliction has not come forth of the dust nor 
has their trouble sprung out of the ground. It is the well- 



EXTRACTS FROM AN UNFINISHED MS. 505 

ordered procedure of their Father and their God. A mysteri- 
ous dealing they may consider it; but still it is His dealing 
and while they mourn He is saying to them, as the Lord 
Jesus once said to His disciples when they were perplexed: 
'What I do ye know not now, but ye shall know hereafter.' 
What we need in the hour of trial, and what we should seek 
by earnest prayer is confidence in Him who sees the end from 
the beginning and doeth all things well. Let us bow in His 
presence with an humble and teachable spirit; let us be still 
and know that He is God; let us acknowledge His hand and 
hear His voice; inquire after His will and seek His Holy 
Spirit, as our counsellor and guide, and all will be well in 
the end. In His light shall we see light; by His grace our 
sorrows will be sanctified and made a blessing to our souls, 
and by and by we shall have occasion to say with blended 
gratitude and rejoicing, Tt is good for us that we have been 
afflicted.' " 

Soon after this the President and Mrs. Lincoln presented 
me with a beautiful ebony cane; the head was six inches in 
length, of small gold roses, and the following was engraved 
upon it: "Rev. P. D. Gurley, D.D., from Mr. and Mrs. 
Abraham Lincoln, 1862." It was in February, 1862, that 
this address was delivered in the room in which Willie died 
and from which he was buried. On account of the nature 
of the disease (varioloid) his funeral was private as possible. 
I was with the President and Mrs. Lincoln often during these 
dark hours. 

Willie's death was a great blow to Mr. Lincoln, coming 
as it did in the midst of the war, when his burdens seemed 
already greater than he could bear. The little boy was always 
interested in the war and used to go down to the White House 
stables and read the battle news to the employees and talk 
over the outcome. These men all loved him and thought, 
for one of his years, he was most unusual. When he was 
dying he said to me, "Doctor Gurley, I have six one dollar 
gold pieces in my bank over there on the mantel. Please 



5o6 LATEST LIGHT ON ABRAHAM LINCOLN 

send them to the missionaries for me." After his death those 
six one dollar pieces were shown to my Sunday School and 
the scholars were informed of Willie's request. He died in 
what was always called the "Prince of Wales Room," as the 
prince occupied it when visiting President Buchanan. 

After his son's death, Mr. Lincoln was greatly annoyed 
by the report that he was interested in spiritualism. He told 
me he thought the report originated from the fact that a 
medium had chanced to call on Mrs. Lincoln. "A simple 
faith in God is good enough for me, and beyond that I do 
not concern myself very much," he added. 

Willie was laid away in Oak Hill cemetery, Georgetown, 
D. C. Later, when his father's body was taken to Springfield, 
the child's remains were also taken. At a little town where 
the funeral train stopped for coal, some children came to the 
car and handed up a wreath, evidently the work of their own 
little hands, and one of them said as the flowers were ac- 
cepted: "We knew every one would give Mr. Lincoln flowers, 
so we made this wreath for little Willie's coffin." 

In Harrisburg, an old colored man approached the funeral 
train as it came to a stop in the station. He was trembling, 
and as he came to the car he took off his hat, bowed his 
head, and while the tears streamed down his face, exclaimed: 
"Massa Lincoln's dead, Massa Lincoln's dead, but de Lord 
spared him till he could set de poor colored people free !" 

To me the most touching incident in connection with that 
never-to-be-forgotten journey to Springfield, with the remains, 
occurred while we were in Philadelphia. An old colored 
woman lamenting loudly for the dead President was outside 
Independence Hall where the remains lay in state. She joined 
the throng who were slowly passing through to take a last 
look at our beloved chieftain. As she approached the casket 
she wept aloud, crying, "Oh, Abraham Lincoln, Abraham Lin- 
coln, are you dead?" 

The President is dead! but in my fancy I can yet hear 
his voice, which was of moderate pitch. It was always con- 





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THE VILLAGE BLACKSMITH 

The engraving from which this is copied hung in the room where President 
Lincoln died. Copies of the picture were so fully picked up that it was 
after thirty years' search that the copy now in Dr. Ervin Chapman's 
collection was secured. 



EXTRACTS FROM AN UNFINISHED MS. 507 

versational and remarkable for its kindly tones. At times 
he used expressive gestures, but he never allowed his voice to 
reach a climax. And his eyes! During 1865, those sad eyes 
were often bloodshot from loss of sleep. He used to say, 
"While others are asleep I think," and then sadly add, "Night 
is the only time I have to think." 



THE CENOTAPH 

And so they buried Lincoln ? Strange and vain ! 

Has any creature thought of Lincoln hid 

In any vault, 'neath any coffin-lid, 
In all the years since that wild Spring of pain? 
'Tis false, — he never in the grave hath lain, 

You could not bury him although you slid 

Upon his clay the Cheops pyramid 
Or heaped It with the Rocky Mountain chain. 
They slew themselves ; they but set Lincoln free. 

In all the earth his great heart beats as strong, 
Shall beat while pulses throb to chivalry 

And burn with hate of tyranny and wrong. 

Whoever will may find him, anywhere 

Save in the tomb. Not there, — he is not there ! 

— James T. McKay. 



PART III 



The election has placed our President beyond the 
pale of human envy or human harm, as he is above 
the pale of human ambition. Henceforth all men 
v^ill come to see him as we have seen him — a true, 
loyal, patient, patriotic, and benevolent man. Hav- 
ing no longer any motive to malign or injure him, 
detraction will cease, and Abraham Lincoln will take 
his place with Washington and Franklin and Jeffer- 
son and Adams and Jackson — among the benefac- 
tors of the country and of the human race. — Tribute 
of William M. Seward. 








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CHAPTER I 
STORIES ABOUT LINCOLN 

LED BY THE SPIRIT 

ISAAC and Sarah Harvey, very devout Quakers, resided 
in Clinton County, Ohio, about fifty miles northwest 
of Cincinnati. They were ardent abolitionists and Isaac 
was so obedient to "the movings of the Spirit" that his neigh- 
bors, who held him in reverence and esteem, regarded him as 
very eccentric in some of his religious convictions and con- 
duct. In 1868 Mrs. Nellie Blessing-Eyster, who now resides 
in Berkeley, California, visited the Harveys and received 
from Isaac, who had become blind, an account of an inter- 
view with President Lincoln in September, 1862. The story 
as told by Mrs. Eyster is here published by her permission 
and is as follows: 

"Folding his thin hands, his face wearing an expression 
of sweet gravity, and his words coming slowly as if he were 
weighing the value of each, he said: 

" T will answer thy question. My quiet life has known 
few storms. I have loved God as my first, best and dearest 
friend, and He has ever dealt most tenderly with me. During 
the first years of the great rebellion, when I read and heard 
of the condition of the poor crushed Negroes, I tried to think 
it was a cunning device of bad men to create greater enmity 
between the North and the South ; but wdien I read Lincoln's 
speeches, I thought so good and wise a man could not be 
deceived, and then I resolved to go and see for myself. At 
one of our First-day meetings I spoke of my intention, but 
although the brethren felt as I did upon the subject they 



512 LATEST LIGHT ON ABRAHAM LINCOLN 

said it was rash for me to expose my life, for I could do no 
good. Nevertheless I went, traveling on horseback through 
most of the Southland, 

" 'Often my life was in danger from guerrillas, but there 
was always an unseen arm between me and the actual foe, 
and in a few weeks I returned, saying the half had not been 
told of the sufferings of these poor, despised, yet God-fearing 
and God-trusting people.' 

"Here his voice trembled with the overflow of pity of 
which his heart seemed the fountain. 

" 'That summer,' he continued, T plowed and reaped and 
gathered in my harvest as usual. Day by day I prayed, at 
home and in the field, that God would show His delivering 
power as he had to the children of Israel. Nothing seemed 
to come in answer. Occasionally during the beginning of the 
war, news reached us that battles had been fought by the 
Northern men and victories won, but still the poor colored 
people were not let go. 

" 'One day while plowing I heard a voice, whether inside 
me or outside of me I know not, but I was awake. It said: 
"Go thou and see the President." I answered: "Yea, Lord, 
Thy servant heareth." And unhitching my plow, I went at 
once to the house and said to mother: "Wilt thou go with me 
to Washington to see the President?" 

" ' "Who sends thee?" she asked. 

" ' "The Lord," I answered. 

" ' "Where thou goest I will go," said mother, and began 
to make ready. 

" 'My friends called me crazed ; some said that this trip 
would be more foolish than the first, and that I, who had 
never been to Washington and knew no one in it, could not 
gain access to the great President. 

" 'The Lord knew I did not want to be foolhardy, but I 
had that on my mind which I must tell President Lincoln, 
and I had faith that He who feedeth the sparrows would 
direct me. 



STORIES ABOUT LINCOLN 513 

" 'We left here on the 17th of Ninth month, 1862, the first 
time mother had been fifty miles from home in sixty years. 
It was a pleasant morning. Before we left the house we 
prayed that God would direct our wandering, or, if He saw 
best, direct us to return. Part of our journey was by stage. 
Every one looked at and spoke to us kindly. Oh, God's world 
is beautiful when we see the invisible in it. 

" 'We got to Washington the next evening. It was about 
early candle light, and there was so much confusion at the 
depot and on the street that mother clung to my arm saying: 
"Oh, Isaac, we ought not to have come here! It looks like 
Babylon!" 

" ' "But the Lord will help us if we have faith that we are 
doing His will," I replied, and we walked away from the cars. 

" 'Under a lamp-post there stood a noble-looking man, 
reading a letter. I stepped before him and said: "Good friend, 
wilt thou tell us where to find President Lincoln?" 

" 'He looked us all over before he spoke. We were neat 
and clean, and soon his face got bright and smiling, and he 
asked us a few plain questions. I told him we were Friends 
from Ohio who had come all of these weary miles to say a 
few words with President Lincoln, because the Lord had 
sent us. 

" 'He nodded his head and said, "I understand." Then he 
took us to a large house called Willard's Hotel, and up to a 
little room away from all the noise. 

" ' "Stay here," he said, "and I will see when the President 
can admit you." 

" 'He was gone a long time, but meanwhile a young man 
brought us up a nice supper, which mother said was very 
hospitable in him, and when the gentleman returned he handed 
me a slip of paper upon which was written, "Admit the bearer 
to the chamber of the President at 9:30 o'clock tomorrow 
morning." My heart was so full of gratitude that I could not 
express my thanksgiving in words. That night was as peace- 
ful as those at home in the meadows. 



514 LATEST LIGHT ON ABRAHAM LINCOLN 

" 'The next morning the kind gentleman came and con- 
ducted us to the house nearby in which the President lived. 
Every one whom we met seemed to know our conductor and 
took off their hats to him. I was glad that he had so many 
friends. At the door of the big porch he left us, promising 
to return in an hour. "You must make your talk with him 
brief," he said. "A big battle has just been fought at Antie- 
tam. The North is victorious, but at least 12,000 men have 
been killed or wounded, and the President, like the rest of us, 
is in great trouble." 

" 'I did not speak. I could not. The room into which 
we were first shown was full of people, all waiting, we sup- 
posed, to see the President. "Ah, Isaac, we shall not get near 
him today. See the anxious faces who come before us," 
whispered mother. 

" ' "As God wills," I said. 

" Tt was a sad place to be in, truly. There were soldiers' 
wives and wounded soldiers sitting around the large room, 
and not a soul but from whom joy and peace seemed to have 
fled. Some were weeping; soldiers with clanking spurs and 
short swords were rapidly walking through the halls; men 
with newspapers in their hands were reading the news from 
the seat of war, and the President's house seemed the center 
of the world. I felt what a solemn thing it must be to have 
so much power.' 

"Here Uncle Isaac's voice got husky and tears fell from his 
sightless eyes upon his wrinkled hands. I reverently brushed 
them off, and in a few minutes he continued: 

" 'When the summons came for us to enter — it was an ad- 
vance of the others — my knees smote together, and for an 
instant I tottered. "Keep heart, Isaac," mother whispered, and 
we went forward. I fear thou wilt think me vain if I tell what 
followed.' 

" 'No fear, Uncle Isaac. Please proceed.' 



STORIES ABOUT LINCOLN 515 

" 'It seemed so wonderful that, for a moment, I could not 
realize it. To think that such humble people as we were should 
be there in the actual presence of the greatest and best man 
in the world, and to be received by him as kindly as if he 
were our own son, made me feel very strange. He shook 
hands with us and put his chair between us. Oh, how I hon- 
ored the good man ! But I said : 

*' ' "Wilt thou pardon me that I do not remove my hat?" 
Then he smiled, and his grave face lit up as he said, "Cer- 
tainly. I understand it all." The dear, dear man' — and again 
Uncle Isaac stopped as though to revel, as a devout nun counts 
her beads, in the memory of that interview. 

"But I w^s impatient. 'What then, sir?' The answer 
came with a solemnity indescribable. My curiosity and his 
reminiscence were not in harmony. 

" 'Of that half hour it does not become me to speak. I 
will think of it gratefully throughout eternity. At last we 
had to go. The President took a hand of each of us in his, 
saying, "I thank you for this visit. May God bless you." 
Was there ever greater condescension than that? Just then 
I asked him if he would object to writing just a line or two, 
certifying that I had fulfilled my mission, so that I could 
show it to the council at home. He sat down to his table. 

" 'Wilt thou open the drawer of that old secretary in the 
corner behind thee, and hand me a little box from therein?' 

"Up to that moment I had not noticed my surroundings. 
The old-fashioned furniture was oiled and rubbed, and a large 
secretary which belonged to the Colonial period was conspic- 
uous. I obeyed instructions, and soon placed in the old man's 
now trembling fingers a small square tin box which was as 
bright as silver. Between two layers of cotton was a folded 
paper, already yellow. The words were verbatim these: 

" 'I take pleasure in asserting that I have had profitable 
intercourse with friend Isaac Harvey and his good wife, Sarah 



5i6 LATEST LIGHT ON ABRAHAM LINCOLN 

Harvey. May the Lord comfort them as they have sus- 
tained me. 

"Abraham Lincoln. 
"Sept. 19, 1862."^ 

" 'Uncle Isaac !' I exclaimed. *I can scarcely realize that 
away off here in the backwoods I should read such words 
traced by Mr. Lincoln's own hands. How singular !' 

" 'Not more so than the whole event was to us, dear child, 
from the first to the last. The following Second-day the pre- 
liminary Proclamation of Emancipation was issued. Thank 
God! Thank God!' 

"It is not possible to depict the devout fervor of the old 
patriarch's thanksgiving. 

" 'Our new friend was waiting at the outside door when 
we came out. I showed him the testimonial. He nodded his 
head affirmatively and said, "It is well." 

" 'We soon left Washington, for our work was done and 
I longed for the quiet of home. Our friend took us to the 
omnibus which conveyed us to the cars, having treated us 
with a gracious hospitality which I can never forget. May 
the Lord care for him as he cared for us.' 

" 'Did you not learn is name?' I inquired, wondering what 
official in those days would have bestowed so much time and 
courtesy upon these unpretending folk. 

" 'Yes, he is high in the esteem of m^en and they call him 
Salmon P. Chase.' " 

In connection with this remarkable story, the validity of 
which cannot be questioned, it is interesting to note that the 
preliminary Emancipation Proclamation issued a few days 
after the visit of Isaac and Sarah Harvey as stated on pre- 
ceding pages was submitted to the Cabinet by President Lin- 

■^ Tn a letter to H. W. W., Jesse Harvey, Isaac's son, thus accounts for 
this precious document : "We kept the writing given by A. Lincoln for 
years. It was borrowed some times, and finally was so soiled we con- 
cluded it would not be of interest to any one, and destroyed it with other 
old papers." 



STORIES ABOUT LINCOLN 517 

coin nearly two months before, and was at that time with- 
held from publication by the President that it might be issued 
in connection with the announcement of a great victory in the 
field. It is, however, certain that by his interview with the 
Harveys, Mr. Lincoln was encouraged and strengthened in 
his purposes to take that important step. 

A MOTHER'S PLEA 

During the dark days of the Rebellion a telegram from the 
front was sent to a mother living in Minnesota, informing 
her that her youngest son, who had recently enlisted, had been 
court-martialed and sentenced to be shot for sleeping while 
on picket duty. It was not the first heartbreaking message 
she had received from the front during the three years of 
bloody strife and she had, by severe discipline, been chastened 
into a spirit of patriotic and religious submission to crushing 
bereavement. But this, as she believed, was beyond the limit 
of righteous submission, and with the heroism which char- 
acterized the womanhood of those days, she exclaimed, "They 
shall not shoot him," and started for Washington. 

There were others there when she was ushered into Pres- 
ident Lincoln's room, but she seemed unmindful of their 
presence. With perfect self-control, but with intense earnest- 
ness, she briefly recited her story to the great chieftain and 
calmly and confidently awaited his reply. 

But when she discovered by his manner that he was dis- 
inclined to grant her request for her b3y's pardon, she fell 
upon her knees at his feet, and seizing his hands in an agon- 
izing mother's convulsive grasp, she cried: 

"Mr. President, I cannot, I will not be denied ! You must 
save my boy ! His father and three brothers have given their 
lives to save the nation. Three have fallen on the field of 
battle and one, mortally wounded, died in the hospital. Then 
my youngest and only remaining son, although too young to 
be liable to draft, when the last of his brothers fell, promptly 



5i8 LATEST LIGHT ON ABRAHAM LINCOLN 

took his place. When almost exhausted from three days and 
nights of a toilsome march, he was placed on picket duty, 
and because he was found sleeping at his post, they intend 
to shoot him like a dog ! Mr. President, you must not permit 
them to do it. You must not, you will not permit my brave, 
heroic boy thus to be cruelly assassinated just because his 
youthful form was unequal to the burdens put upon him! 
Remember his fallen father and brothers, remember your own 
son, and save my boy!" 

Those who witnessed the scene were deeply moved and 
were delighted when they saw the tender-hearted President 
press a handkerchief to his tearful eyes that he might see to 
write and sign the brave young soldier's pardon. 

COURT IN A CORN-FIELD 

The late Harvey Lee Ross of Oakland, California, was 
one of my true friends, and was always happy to converse 
about Abraham Lincoln, whom he had known quite intimately 
during his residence in Illinois. One of the many pleasing 
Lincoln stories he related to me is the following: 

"I had a quarter section of land, tw^o miles south of 
Macomb, that came to me from my father's estate. It was a 
fine quarter, but there was a little defect in the title, which 
could be remedied by the evidence of a man named Hagerty, 
who lived six miles west of Springfield and who knew the 
facts I wished to prove. I had noticed in the papers that 
court was in session at Springfield, and as court convened 
but twice a year I immediately started for that place, which 
vv^as sixty miles from my home. I found my witness and 
took him with me. On arriving at Springfield, we went 
directly to Mr. Lincoln's office, which was over a store on the 
west side of the square. I think the office was about fourteen 
feet square and contained two tables, two bookcases and four 
or five chairs, while the floor was perfectly bare. I told Mr. 
Lincoln my business and showed him my title papers, which 



STORIES ABOUT LINCOLN 519 

he looked over and then remarked to me : 'I am sorry to have 
to tell you that you are a little too late, for this court ad- 
journed this morning and does not convene again for six 
months, and Judge Thomas has gone home. He lives on his 
farm a mile east of the public square, but,' said he, 'we v^ill 
go and see him and see if anything can be done for you.' 

"I told him I would get a carriage and we would drive 
out, but he said, 'No; I can walk if you can.' I said I would 
just as soon walk as ride, and before we started he pulled 
off his coat and laid it on a chair, taking from the pocket a 
large bandana silk handkerchief to wipe the perspiration from 
his face, as it was a very warm day in August. He struck 
off across the public square in his shirt sleeves with the red 
handkerchief in one hand and my bundle of papers in the 
other, while my witness and I followed. 

"We soon came to Judge Thomas's residence, which was 
a one-story frame house. Mr. Lincoln knocked at the door — 
at that time there were no doorbells — and the judge's wife 
came to the door. Mr. Lincoln asked if the judge was at 
home and she replied that he had gone to the north part of 
the farm, where they had a tenant house, to help his men 
put up a corncrib. She said if we went the main road it 
would be about a half mile, but we could cut across the corn- 
field and it would not be more than a quarter of a mile. Mr. 
Lincoln said if she would show us the path we would take 
the short cut, so she came out of the house and showed us 
where the path struck off across the field from their barn. 
We followed this path, Mr. Lincoln in the lead, and the wit- 
ness and I following in Indian file, and soon came to where 
the judge and his men were raising a log house, about 12 by 
20 feet in size, which was to serve as a corncrib and hog- 
house. Mr. Lincoln told Judge Thomas how I had come 
from Fulton county and brought my witness to town just 
after court had adjourned, and said he thought he would come 
out and see if anything could be done. The judge looked 
over the title papers and stated he guessed they could fix it 



520 LATEST LIGHT ON ABRAHAM LINCOLN 

up, so he swore my witness, with whom he was acquainted, 
and procuring a pen and ink from his tenant fixed the papers. 

"The judge and all the balance of us were in our shirt 
sleeves, and Mr. Lincoln remarked to the judge that it was 
a kind of shirt-sleeved court. 

" 'Yes,' replied the judge, 'a shirt-sleeved court in a corn- 
field.' After the business had been transacted, Mr. Lincoln 
asked Judge Thomas if he did not want some help in rolling 
up the logs, and the judge replied that there were two logs 
that were pretty heavy and he would like to have us help 
roll them up. So before we left we helped roll the logs up, 
Mr. Lincoln steering one end and the judge the other. I 
offered to pay the judge for taking the deposition of my wit- 
ness, but he said he guessed I had helped with the raising 
enough to pay for that and would take nothing for his work. 
When we got back to Lincoln's office in town I think we had 
walked at least three miles. Mr. Lincoln put my papers in 
a large envelope with the name 'Stuart & Lincoln' printed at 
the top. 'Now,' said he, 'when you go home put those papers 
on record and you will have a good title to your land.' 

"I took out my pocketbook to pay him and supposed he 
would charge me about $io, as I knew he was always mod- 
erate in his charges. 'Now, Mr. Lincoln,' said I, 'how much 
shall I pay you for this work and the long walk through 
the hot sun and dust?' He paused for a moment and took 
the big silk handkerchief and wiped the perspiration off that 
was running down his face, and said: 'I guess I will not 
charge you anything for that. I will let it go on the old 
score.' When he said that it broke me all up, and I could 
not keep the tears from running down my face, for I could 
recall many instances where he had been so good and kind 
to me when I was carrying the mail; then for him to say 
he would charge me nothing for this work was more kind- 
ness than I could stand. I suppose what he meant by the old 
score was that I had occasionally helped him in his store and 



STORIES ABOUT LINCOLN 521 

post office and my father had assisted him some when he got 
the post office." 

WORLD-WIDE FAME 

"Several years after Lincoln's death (1874) the writer, 
then a student in Germany, was traveling in Switzerland. 
Arriving early one morning at the little village of Thusis, at 
the northern end of the Via Mala, he entered an inn for 
breakfast. As he seated himself at a table he was surprised 
and delighted to notice hanging on a wall directly in front 
of him, a fine engraving of Abraham Lincoln. 

"It was like meeting an old friend and so far away from 
America, too, in that little place among the Alps, at the high 
mountains which are always covered with snow. The first 
thought was here is a Swiss gentleman who has lived in the 
United States and has brought this picture back home with 
him. So when the landlord entered, I said, 'Excuse me, sir, 
but have you not been in the United States?' 

" 'No, indeed,' he rephed, 'but why do you ask?' 

" 'That picture of Lincoln,' I said; 'where did you get it?' 

" 'Oh, that picture ! Why I bought that at Lucerne. It 
is the only one in this Canton (county) and I would not sell 
it for forty gulden,' he exclaimed. 

"Now thoroughly interested, I again asked, 'What made 
you buy it?' He answered very earnestly, 'Because I love 
the man and his principles. He was a great man. Were you 
ever in America ?' he then asked. 

" 'Oh, yes ! I am an American,' I replied. 

" 'What ! a native-born American,' he exclaimed, reaching 
out his hand. 'Give me your hand. I am proud to meet a 
countryman of the great Lincoln,' he continued. 'Now you 
must stay with me and let me show you the points of interest 
about here.' 

" 'You are very good,' said I, 'and since your love and 
reverence for Abraham Lincoln has prompted your kindness, 
in his name I thank you.' 



522 LATEST LIGHT ON ABRAHAM LINCOLN 

"So presently we started and I enjoyed one of the happiest 
and most profitable days of my entire journey because I was 
a countryman of the good and great Lincoln. It was his 
life of kind deeds, his poverty and struggle, his honesty and 
truthfulness, and his final death for the cause of liberty and 
union of the states which, when off there, thousands of miles 
from America, had won for me this generous hospitality. The 
incident shows that a single character may ennoble and glorify 
a nation. A single name like magic secure consideration and 
protection to a race." ' 

WHERE THE WHETSTONE WAS 

In 1834, when Lincoln was a candidate for the legislature, 
he called on a certain farmer to ask for his support. He 
found him in the hayfield, and was urging his cause when 
the dinner-bell sounded. The farmer invited him to dinner, 
but he declined politely, and added: 

"If you will let me have the scythe while you are gone, 
I will mow around the field a couple of times." 

When the farmer returned he found three rows neatly 
mowed. The scythe lay against the gate-post, but Lincoln 
had disappeared. 

Nearly thirty years afterward the farmer and his wife, 
now grown old, were at a White House reception, and stood 
waiting in line to shake hands with the President. When 
they got near him in line, Lincoln saw them and calling an 
aide, told him to take them to one of the small parlors, 
where he would see them as soon as he got through the hand- 
shaking. Much surprised, the old couple were led away. 
Presently Mr. Lincoln came in, and greeting them with an 
outstretched hand and a warm smile, called them by name. 

"Do you mean to say," exclaimed the farmer, "that you 
remember me after all these years?" 

2 Silas G. Pratt, Lincoln in Story, pp. 215, 217. 




AS SEEN AND LOVED ABROAD 

From a picture woven in silk in Switzerland in 1865, and now 
in Dr. Ervin Chapman's collection. 



STORIES ABOUT LINCOLN 523 

"I certainly do," said the President, and he went on to 
recall the day he had mowed round the farmer's timothy field. 

"Yes, that's so," said the old man, still in astonishment. 
"I found the field mowed and the scythe leaning up against 
the gate-post, but I have always wanted to ask you, Mr. Presi- 
dent, what you did with the whetstone?" 

Lincoln smoothed his hair back from his brow a moment 
in deep thought ; then his face lighted up. 

"Yes, I do remember now," he said. "I put the whetstone 
on top of the high gate-post." 

And when he got back to Illinois again the farmer found 
the whetstone on top of the gate-post, where it had lain for 
more than twenty-five years. 

LED BY A CHILD 

On April 11, 1865, Lincoln spoke from a window of the 
White House to a large and joyful crowd, gathered in honor 
of Lee's surrender. The President's speech was full of con- 
ciliation. Senator Harlan followed, and in the course of 
his remarks touched on the thought uppermost in everybody's 
mind. "What shall we do with the rebels?" he asked. A 
voice answered from the crowd, "Hang them!" 

Lincoln's small son was in the room, playing with the 
pens on the table. Looking up he caught his father's pained 
expression. 

"No, no, papa," he cried in his childish voice. "Not hang 
them. Hang on to them !" 

"That is it ! Tad has got it. We must hang on to them !" 
the President exclaimed in triumph.' 

nNCOLN, THE LAWYER, ACTS AS A PASTOR 

Visiting Captain Gilbert J. Greene at his home in Wash- 
ingtonville. New York, I said: "Captain, what do you think 
of Lincoln's religion? There is evidence which satisfies me 

'Helen Nicolay's Personal Traits of Abraham Lincoln, pp. 357, 358, 



524 LATEST LIGHT ON ABRAHAM LINCOLN 

that he was a thoroughly religious man, and a Christian." 
He .mswered: "You are correct in your opinion. At one time 
in his life he was an unbeliever, and through life he held 
some religious views peculiar to himself, but in the cardinal 
doctrines of Christianity he was sound. One night he said 
to me, then a boy about nineteen, calling me by my first name, 
'Gilbert, you have to stand at your printer's case all day and 
I have to sit all day, let us take a walk.' As we walked on 
the country road out of Springfield, he turned his eyes to the 
heavens full of stars, and told me their names and their dis- 
tance from us and the swiftness of their motion. He said 
the ancients used to arrange them so as to make monsters, 
serpents, animals of one kind or another out of them, but, 
said he, T never behold them that I do not feel that I am 
looking in the face of God. I can see how it might be pos- 
sible for a man to look down upon the earth and be an atheist, 
but I cannot conceive how he could look up into the heavens 
and say there is no God.' The information and inspiration 
received that night during the walk I shall never forget. 

"One day he said to me, 'Gilbert, there is a woman danger- 
ously sick living fifteen miles out in the country, who has 
sent for me to come and write her will. I should like to 
have you go along with me; I would enjoy your company, 
and the trip would be a little recreation for you.' I cheer- 
fully accepted the invitation. We found the woman much 
worse than we expected. She had only a few hours to live. 
When Lincoln had written the will and it had been signed 
and witnessed, the woman said to him: 'Now, I have my 
affairs for this world arranged satisfactorily, I am thankful 
to say that long before this I have made preparation for the 
other life I am so soon to enter. I sought and found Christ 
as my Saviour, who has been my stay and comfort through 
the years and is now near to me to carry me over the river 
of death. I do not fear death ; I am really glad that my time 
has come, for loved ones have gone before me and I rejoice 
in the hope of meeting them so soon.' Mr. Lincoln said to 



STORIES ABOUT LINCOLN 525 

her, 'Your faith in Christ is wise and strong, your hope of a 
future life is blessed. You are to be congratulated on pass- 
ing through this life so usefully and into the future so 
happily.' She asked him if he would not read a few verses 
out of the Bible to her. They offered him the Book, but he 
did not take it, but began reciting from memory the 23rd 
Psalm, laying special emphasis upon 'Though I walk through 
the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for 
thou art with me; thy rod and thy staff they comfort me." 
Without the Book he took up the first part of the 14th of 
John. Tn my Father's house are many mansions; if it were 
not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for 
you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come 
again, and receive you unto myself.' After he had given 
these and other quotations from the Scriptures he recited 
several hymns, closing with 'Rock of Ages, Cleft for Me.' 
I thought at the time I had never heard any elocutionist speak 
with such ease or power as he did. I am an old man now, 
but my heart melts as it did then in that death chamber, as I 
remember how, with almost divine pathos, he spoke the last 
stanza: 

" 'While I draw this fleeting breath, 
When my eyes shall close in death, 
When I soar to worlds unknown, 
And behold Thee on Thy throne, 
Rock of Ages, cleft for me, 
Let me hide myself in Thee.' 

"A little while after the woman passed to her reward. As 
we rode home in the buggy, I expressed surprise that he should 
have acted pastor as well as attorney so perfectly, and he re- 
plied, 'God and eternity were very near to me today.' " 

In concluding the interview, I said to Captain Greene, 
"You have done the memory of the martyred President and 
the Christian public a service in opening this new window 



526 LATEST LIGHT ON ABRAHAM LINCOLN 

on the religious side of Lincoln's nature. However much 
the mind may be tempted to doubt, there are times when the 
heart must believe. The religion of the dying woman and of 
the ministering attorney is the need of the universal heart 
and will become the religion of the world." * 

THOUGHTFUL FOR OTHERS 

Colonel W. H. Crook, President Lincoln's bodyguard, in 
"Memories of the White House," gives the following account 
of how it was made possible for Wilkes Booth to enter the 
President's box in Ford's Theater. 

"The only time that President Lincoln failed to say good- 
night to me — when we parted after having been together for 
hours — was on the evening shortly before he started for Ford's 
Theater, where he was murdered. As I mentioned on another 
occasion, some years ago, Mr. Lincoln had told me that after- 
noon of a dream he had had for three successive nights, con- 
cerning his impending assassination. Of course, the constant 
dread of such a calamity made me somewhat nervous, and I 
almost begged him to remain in the Executive Mansion that 
night, and not to go to the theater. But he would not dis- 
appoint Mrs. Lincoln and others who were to be present. 
Then I urged that he allow me to stay on duty and accompany 
him; but he would not hear of this, either. 

" 'No, Crook,' he said, kindly but firmly, 'you have had a 
long, hard day's work already, and must go home to sleep and 
rest. I cannot afford to have you get all tired out and ex- 
hausted.* 

"It was then that he neglected, for the first and only time, 
to say good-night to me. Instead, he turned, with his kind, 
grave face, and said: 'Good-bye, Crook,' and went into his 
room. 

"I thought of it at the moment; and a few hours later, 
when the awful news flashed over Washington that he had 

* Rev. F. C. Iglehart, D.D., The Speaking Oak. 



STORIES ABOUT LINCOLN 527 

been shot, his last words were so burned into my memory that 
they never have been, and never can be forgotten. 

"Although I have already stated the fact in print, I wish 
to repeat it here — that when Mr. and Mrs. Lincoln and their 
party sat in their box at Ford's Theater that fateful night, 
the guard who was acting as my substitute took his position 
at the rear of the box, close to an entrance leading into the 
box from the dress circle of the theater. His orders were to 
stand there, fully armed, and to permit no unauthorized person 
to pass into the box. His orders were to stand there and pro- 
tect the President at all hazards. 

"From the spot where he was thus stationed, this guard 
could not see the stage or the actors; but he could hear the 
words the actors spoke, and he became so interested in them 
that, incredible as it may seem, he quieth deserted his post 
of duty, and walking down the dimly-lighted side aisle, de- 
Hberately took a seat in the last r.vv of the dress circle. 

"It was while the President was thus absolutely unpro- 
tected through this guard's amazing recklessness — to use no 
stronger words — that Booth rushed through the entrance to 
the box, just deserted by the guard, and accompHshed his foul 
deed. Realization of his part in the assassination so preyed 
upon the mind and spirit of the guard that he finally died as a 
result of it." 

THE HIRED MAU 

The Northzvestern Christian Advocate is responsible for 
the following: "In the autumn of 1830, a traveling book ped- 
dler, who afterward became a successful publisher, and the 
head of a firm whose name is well known in the United States 
today, came to the door of a log cabin on a farm in eastern 
Illinois, and asked for the courtesy of a night's lodging. There 
was no inn near. The good wife was hospitable but per- 
plexed, 'for,' said she, 'we can feed your beast but we can't 
lodge you unless you are willing to sleep with the hired man.' 
'Let's have a look at him first,' said the peddler. The woman 



528 LATEST LIGHT ON ABRAHAM LINCOLN 

pointed to the side of the house, where a lank, six-foot man, 
in ragged but clean clothes, was stretched on the grass reading 
a book. 'He'll do,' said the stranger. 'A man who reads a 
book as hard as that fellow seems to, has got too much else 
to think of besides my watch or my small change.' 

"The hired man was Abraham Lincoln ; and when he was 
President the tA\'o met in Washington and laughed together 
over the story of their early rencontre." 

WATCHED WITH A DYING SOLDIEE 

One of the prettiest stories told of Abraham Lincoln is 
that, on visiting a military hospital, he stood at the bedside 
of a Vermont boy of about sixteen years of age, who was 
mortally wounded. Taking the dying boy's thin, white hand 
in his own, the President said in a tender tone, "Well, my 
poor bo) . what can I do for you ?" 

The young fellow looked up into the President's kindly 
face, and asked: "Won't you write to my mother for me?" 

"That I will," answered Mr. Lincoln, and calling for a 
pen, ink and paper, he seated himself by the side of the bed 
and wro'-j from the boy's dictation. It was a long letter, but 
the President betrayed no signs of weariness. When it was 
finished he arose, saying, "I will post this as soon as I get 
back to my office. Now, is there anything else I can do for 
you?" 

The boy looked up appealingly to the President. "Won't 
you stay with me?" he asked. "I do want to hold on to your 
hand." Mr. Lincoln at once perceived the lad's meaning. 
The appeal was too strong for him to resist, so he sat down 
by his side, and took hold of his hand. For two hours the 
President sat there patiently as though he had been the boy's 
father. When the end came, he bent over and folded the thin 
hands over his breast. As he did so, he burst into tears, and 
when, soon after, he left the hospital, they were still streaming 
down his cheeks. 



STORIES ABOUT LINCOLN 529 

THREE TERRORS 

"One day, shortly before the issue of the Emancipation 
Proclamation, a visitor, finding Mr. Lincoln evidently in 
melancholy mood, said to him, 'Mr. President, I am very 
sorry to find you not feeling so well as at my last visit.* 

"Mr. Lincoln replied: 'Yes, I am troubled. One day the 
best of our friends from the border States come in and insist 
that I shall not issue an Emancipation Proclamation, and 
that, if I do so, the border States will virtually cast in their 
lot with the Southern Confederacy. Another day, Charles 
Sumner, Thad Stevens, and Ben Wade come in and insist 
that if I do not issue such a proclamation the North will be 
utterly discouraged and the Union wrecked — and, by the way, 
these three men are coming in this very afternoon.' At this 
moment his expression changed, his countenance lighted up, 

and he said to the visitor, who was from the West, 'Mr. , 

did you ever go to a prairie school?' 
" 'No,' said the visitor, 'I never did.' 
" 'Well,' said Mr. Lincoln, 'I did, and it was a very poor 
school, and we were very poor folks — too poor to have regu- 
lar reading books, and so we brought our Bibles and read 
from them. One morning the chapter was from the Book 
of Daniel, and a little boy who sat next me went all wrong 
in pronouncing the names of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abed- 
nego. The teacher had great difficulty in setting him right, 
and before he succeeded was obliged to scold the boy and 
cufif him for his stupidity. The next verse came to me, and 
so the chapter went along down the class. Presently it started 
on its way back, and soon after I noticed that the little fellow 
began crying. On this I asked him, 'What's the matter with 
you?' and he answered, 'Don't you see? Them three miserable 
cusses are coming back to me again !' " ° 
6 Autobiography of Andrew D. Wiiite, Vol II., p. 127, 



530 LATEST LIGHT ON ABRAHAM LINCOLN 

FRANKLY CONFESSED HIS FAULT 

The following is from the pen of D. H. Mitchell: "Soon 
after the outbreak of hostilities a hot-blooded, fire-eating 
young man, a son of members of Dr. Gurley's church, in 
Washington, D. C, made his way through our lines and en- 
listed in the Confederate Army. The fortunes of war threw 
him into our hands as a prisoner. It was deemed best to make 
an example of him, and he was consequently court-martialed 
and sentenced to be shot. Dr. Gurley interested himself in 
the young man's behalf and secured a commutation of the 
sentence. A short time after, the father of the boy came to 
Dr. Gurley and solicited his aid to obtain a pardon. Dr. Gur- 
ley strongly advised against the effort. He pointed out that 
the young man's life had been saved by the President and that 
it would be extremely unwise and imprudent to apply for a 
pardon so soon. The father replied that he felt so himself, 
but that his wife took on so about her son that he feared 
she would lose her mind if something were not done. T must,' 
said he, 'make the attempt on his mother's account. It is 
better to fail than not to try.' Consequently Dr. Gurley signed 
the petition for a pardon and the father took it to President 
Lincoln. 

"When the father made known his errand the President 
said with great earnestness: T saved the life of your son after 
he had been condemned to be shot; and now you come here 
so soon when you know I am overwhelmed with care and 
anxiety asking for his pardon. You should have been con- 
tent with what I have done. Go; and if you annoy me any 
more I shall feel it my duty to consider whether I ought not 
to recall what I have already done.' 

"A few days later the President sent for the father, apol- 
ogized for the way he had spoken to him, and, to his utter 
astonishment, handed him a pardon. 

"Not long after, and before knowing what had transpired, 
Dr. Gurley met the President. Having transacted his business, 



STORIES ABOUT LINCOLN 531 

he was about to go when Mr. Lincoln said: 'By the way, 

Doctor, you signed the petition for Mr. 's son's pardon, 

didn't you?' 

"The Doctor replied that he had done so, but explained 
that he had advised against making the application at that 
time, and that he was induced to sign it only by the statement 
of the father that he feared his wife would lose her mind if 
something were not done to relieve her. The President then 

remarked: 'Well, Mr. came to me with the petition. 

It made me very angry and I dismissed him roughly. After- 
ward I felt so ashamed of myself for having lost my temper 
that I made out a pardon for the man and gave it to him.* 
And then, after a pause and with a broad smile, he added: 

" 'Ah, Doctor ! these wives of ours have the inside track 
on us, don't they ?' " 

LINCOLN AT A SALOON DOOR 

Rev. John Talmadge Bergen, D.D., relates the following, 
which at the present time is of special interest: 

"Some years ago at a Lincoln meeting among the old 
soldiers of a Michigan city, one of the battle-worn veterans 
gave the following testimony: 'We have heard what Lincoln 
has done for all of us. I want to tell you what he did for 
me. I was a private in one of the western regiments that 
arrived first in Washington after the call for 75,000. We 
were marching through the city amid great crowds of cheering 
people, and then, after going into camp, were given leave to 
see the town. 

" 'Like many other of our boys, the saloon or tavern was 
the first thing we hit. With my comrade I was just about to 
go into the door of one of these places, when a hand was 
laid upon my arm, and looking up, there was President Lin- 
coln from his great height above me, a mere lad, regarding 
me with those kindly eyes and pleasant smile. 

" 'I almost dropped with surprise and bash fulness, but he 



532 LATEST LIGHT ON ABRAHAM LINCOLN 

held out his hand, and as I took it he shook hands in strong 
Western fashion and said: "I don't Uke to see our uniform 
going into these places." That was all he said. He turned 
immediately, and walked away and we passed on. We would 
not have gone into that tavern for all the wealth of Wash- 
ington City. 

" 'And that is what Abraham Lincoln did then and there 
for me. He fixed me so that whenever I go near a saloon and 
in any way think of entering, his words and face come back 
to me. That experience has been a means of salvation to my 
life. Today I hate the saloon, and have hated it ever since 
I heard those words from that great man.' " 

CLEAN HANDS 

One day a stranger called to secure Lincoln's services. 
"State your case," said Lincoln. A history of the case was 
given, when Lincoln astonished him by saying, "I cannot 
serve you, for you are wrong, and the other party is right," 

"That is none of your business, if I hire and pay you 
for taking the case," said the man. 

"Not my business!" exclaimed Lincoln. "My business is 
never to defend wrong, even if I am a lawyer. I never under- 
take a case that is manifestly wrong." 

"Not for any amount of pay?" continued the stranger. 

"Not for all you are worth," replied Lincoln. — H. H. 
Smith, Kinsale, Va. 

SHOT THROUGH HIS HAT 

John W. Nichols, President Lincoln's bodyguard at the 
Soldiers' Home, near Washington, gives the following account 
of the President's narrow escape from assassination in Au- 
gust, 1864: 

"One night I was doing sentry duty at the large gate 
through which entrance was had to the grounds of the Soldiers' 
Home, near Washington, where Mr. Lincoln spent much time 



STORIES ABOUT LINCOLN 533 

in summer. About eleven o'clock I heard a rifle-shot in the 
direction of the city, and shortly afterwards I heard approach- 
ing hoof-beats. In two or three minutes a horse came dashing 
up, and I recognized the belated President. The horse he 
rode was a very spirited one, and was Mr. Lincoln's saddle 
horse. As horse and rider approached the gate, I noticed 
that the President was bareheaded. As soon as I had assisted 
him in checking his steed, the President said to me: 'He came 
pretty near getting away with me, didn't he? He got the bit 
in his teeth before I could draw the rein.' 

"I then asked him where his hat was ; and he replied that 
somebody had fired a gun off down at the foot of the hill, 
and that his horse had become scared and had jerked his 
hat off. I led the animal to the Executive Cottage and the 
President dismounted and entered. Thinking the affair 
rather strange, a corporal and myself started off to investi- 
gate. When we reached the place whence the sound of the 
shot had come — a point where the driveway intersects with 
the main road — we found the President's hat. It was a plain, 
silk hat, and upon examination we discovered a bullet-hole 
through the crown. We searched the locality thoroughly, but 
without avail. Next day I gave Mr. Lincoln his hat, and 
called his attention to the bullet-hole. He made some humor- 
ous remark, to the effect that it was made by some foolish 
marksman and was not intended for him; but added that he 
wished nothing said about the matter. We all felt confident 
that it was an attempt to kill the President, and after that he 
never rode alone." 

COURAGEOUS FIDELITY 

Hon. Joshua R. Giddings by his forceful personality, 
superior intellectual endowments, physical and moral courage, 
and undeviating loyalty to freedom, attained first place among 
the antislavery leaders of the period preceding the election of 
Abraham Lincoln as President in i860. His twenty years' 



534 LATEST LIGHT ON ABRAHAM LINCOLN 

services as a member of Congress from the famous Western 
Reserve district in Ohio, and his many heroic battles with 
the pro-slavery forces in Congress and elsewhere, gave pecu- 
liar weight to an amendment of the platform proposed by 
him in the Chicago convention declaring that "all men are 
created equal." That amendment, however, after discussion, 
was disapproved of by the convention as unnecessary, to the 
regret of those who favored it, and especially of Mr. Giddings, 
who expressed his disappointment and displeasure by with- 
drawing from the convention. 

But before he left the Wigwam, in which the convention 
was held, the veteran antislavery champion was overtaken and 
informed that under the leadership of George William Curtis 
the convention had revised its decision and adopted his amend- 
ment. This action was a great joy to Mr. Giddings, who 
thereupon returned and resumed his seat as a delegate in the 
convention, which on the following day nominated Abraham 
Lincoln as its candidate for President. 

All this was made a matter of record, but not until after 
Mr. Lincoln's death was it generally known that he, though 
at Springfield, was a participant in the efforts to secure the 
adoption of the Giddings amendment. Immediately after the 
defeat of that amendment, a telegram was sent Mr. Lincoln, 
saying: "Convention has just voted down the Giddings amend- 
ment. What can we do?" 

To this Mr. Lincoln promptly replied: "Party rejecting 
the principles of the Declaration of Independence will go to 
pieces. Have a recess, reconsider amendment. Time and 
reflection will restore men's reason and bring better judg- 
ment." This message from Mr. Lincoln was in the hall when 
Mr. Curtis finished his speech for the amendment and as the 
crisis seemed to be passed it was not presented. It was, how- 
ever, a fine illustration of Mr. Lincoln's courageous fidelity 
to his convictions. 



STORIES ABOUT LINCOLN 535 

REFUSED TO PLEDGE 

Quite as illustrative as the foregoing, of Mr. Lincoln's 
great courage and wisdom, is the following from the Hon. 
John B. Alley, a prominent member of Congress from Massa- 
chusetts : 

"The evening before the balloting in the Chicago conven- 
tion, a telegram was sent Mr. Lincoln by his trusted friends 
in Chicago, stating that his chances for securing the nomina- 
tion depended upon the votes of two delegations in the con- 
vention which were named in the dispatch, and that to secure 
this support he must pledge himself, if elected, to give places 
in his Cabinet to the heads of those delegations. 

"Mr. Lincoln immediately replied: 1 authorize no bargains 
and will be bound by none.' " 

SEEKS FELLOWSHIP IN PRAYER WITH BEECHER 

Mr. Samuel Scoville, Jr., of Philadelphia, a grandson of 
Henry Ward Beecher, is responsible for the following, which 
he received from his grandmother, Mr. Beecher's widow: 

"Following the disaster of Bull Run, wheij the strength 
and resources of the nation seemed to have been wasted, the 
hopes of the North were at their lowest ebb, and Mr. Lincoln 
was well-nigh overwhelmed with the awful responsibility of 
guiding the nation in its life struggle. Henry Ward Beecher, 
of Brooklyn, was perhaps more prominently associated with 
the cause of the North at that time than any other minister 
of the gospel. He had preached and lectured and fought its 
battles in pulpit and press all over the country, had ransomed 
slaves from his pulpit, and his convictions and feelings were 
everywhere known. 

"Late one evening a stranger called at the home of Mr. 
Beecher and asked to see him. Mr. Beecher was working 
alone in his study, as was his custom, and this stranger refused 
to send up his name, and came muffled in a military cloak 



536 LATEST LIGHT ON ABRAHAM LINCOLN 

which completely hid his face. Mrs. Beecher's suspicions were 
aroused, and she was very unwilling that he should have the 
interview which he requested, especially as Mr. Beecher's life 
had been frequently threatened by sympathizers with the 
South. The latter, however, insisted that his visitor be shown 
up. Accordingly, the stranger entered, the doors were shut, 
and for hours the wife below could hear their voices and 
their footsteps as they paced back and forth. Finally, toward 
midnight, the mysterious visitor v/ent out, still muffled in his 
cloak, so that it was impossible to gain any idea of his 
features. 

"The years went by, the war was finished, the President 
had suffered martyrdom at his post, and it was not until 
shortly before Mr. Beecher's death, over twenty years later, 
that he made known that the mysterious stranger who had 
called on that stormy night was Abraham Lincoln. The stress 
and strain of those days and nights of struggle, with all the 
responsibilities and sorrows of a nation fighting for its life 
resting upon him, had broken his strength, and for a time 
undermined his courage. He had traveled alone in disguise 
and at night from Washington to Brooklyn, to gain the sym- 
pathy and help of one whom he knew as a man of God, en- 
gaged in the same great battle in which he was the leader. 
Alone for hours that night, like Jacob of old, the two had 
wrestled together in prayer with the God of battles and the 
Watcher over the right until they had received the help vvhich 
He had promised to those that seek His aid." 

This story has been vigorously denied and as vigorously 
defended. That it was originally told by Mrs. Henry Ward 
Beecher cannot be questioned. Mr. Scoville, who first pub- 
lished it, declares that in his opinion it is true, and Dr. 
William J. Johnson, author of "Abraham Lincoln — the 
Christian," informed me that after thorough investigation he 
fully believed it to be authentic and truthful. 

This seemingly strange event in Mr. Lincoln's life is in 
perfect accord with his religious belief and his deeper spiritual 




HENRY WARD BEECHER 

With whom President Lincoln sought fellowship in prayer. 



STORIES ABOUT LINCOLN 537 

nature. That profound sense of dependence upon God and 
faith in prayer which he expressed so many times and with 
such clearness, caused him, as already stated, to solicit callers 
at the White House whom he held in especially high esteem; 
like Bishops Simpson and Janes, Major Merwin and others, 
to kneel with him in supplication and prayer. 

And apart from the journey from Washington to Brook- 
lyn, this event related by Mrs. Beecher was not unlike those 
requests for prayer in the Executive Mansion. Mr. Lincoln's 
well known regard for Henry Ward Beecher would certainly 
cause him to yearn for his companionship at the altar of inter- 
cession at a time of great and peculiar national peril. Mr. 
Beecher's early and heroic espousal of the antislavery cause 
and his matchless eloquence in denouncing slavery attracted 
Mr. Lincoln's attention and awakened his admiration before 
he had himself become widely known. He was a constant 
reader of The Independent while Mr. Beecher was its editor, 
and on both of the Sundays he spent in New York during his 
Cooper Institute and New England speaking tour, he crossed 
over to Brooklyn to hear Beecher preach. 

During his Presidency, Mr. Lincoln very earnestly be- 
sought Beecher, during a contemplated European trip, to make 
a series of addresses in England on behalf of the great struggle 
to preserve the Union. This request Mr. Beecher at first 
declined, but at length accepted, performing the task assigned 
him in a manner unparalleled in human history. 

And so high was Mr. Lincoln's estimate of Beecher's ora- 
torical powers and his appreciation of his services to the nation 
and to the cause of human freedom that when the flag was 
to be restored to Fort Sumter, the President made special 
request that the great preacher be chosen to deliver the address 
upon that important occasion. It is, therefore, reasonable 
that when overwhelmed by a realization of the nation's perils, 
the great Chieftain should quietly seek the seclusion of the 
upper chamber in Brooklyn to spend a season in prayer with 



538 LATEST LIGHT ON ABRAHAM LINCOLN 

the man of God whom he held in such high esteem and for 
whom he cherished such ardent personal affection. 

Upon the scene of this unique event there rests a halo of 
celestial beauty too sacred to be regarded with indifference 
or doubt. 

A SLAVE-MOTHER'S PRAYER 

The following from the late Dr. Booker T. Washington 
is peculiarly interesting and pathetic: "My first knowledge 
of Abraham Lincoln came in this way: I was awakened early 
one morning before the dawn of day, as I lay wrapped in a 
bundle of rags on the dirt floor of our slave cabin, by the 
prayers of my mother. It was just before she left for her 
day's work and she was kneeling over me earnestly praying 
that Abraham Lincoln might succeed and that one day she 
and her boy might be free." 

A SCOFFER WEEP3 

Dr. Edward Eggleston, in the following, tells how a jolly 
friend of Mr. Lincoln in Springfield succeeded in bantering 
him about an event that occurred while he was in. New York 
City to deliver the Cooper Institute speech: 

"He started for 'Old Abe's' office, but bursting open the 
door impulsively, found a stranger in conversation with Mr. 
Lincoln. He turned to retrace his steps, when Lincoln called 
out, 'JiiTi-' what do you want?' 'Nothing.' 'Yes, you do; 
come back.* 

"After some entreaty, 'Jim' approached Mr. Lincoln, and 
remarked with a twinkle in his eye, 'Well, Abe> I see you have 
been making a speech to Sunday School children. What's the 
matter ?' 

" 'Sit down, Jim, and I'll tell you all about it. When 
Sunday morning came, I didn't know exactly what to do. Mr. 
Washburne asked me where I was going. I told him I had 
nowhere to go ; and he proposed to take me down to the Five 
Points Sunday School, to show me something worth seeing. I 



STORIES ABOUT LINCOLN 539 

was very much interested by what I saw. Presently Mr. 
Pease came up and spoke to Mr. Washburne, who introduced 
me. Mr. Pease wanted us to speak. Washburne spoke, and 
then I was urged to speak. I told them I did not know any- 
thing about talking to Sunday Schools, but Mr. Pease said 
many of the children were friendless and homeless, and that 
a few words would do them good. Washburne said I must 
talk. And so I rose to speak; but I tell you, Jim, I didn't 
know what to say. I remembered that Mr. Pease said they 
were homeless and friendless, and I thought of the time when 
I had been pinched by terrible poverty. And so I told them 
that I had been poor ; that I remembered when my toes stuck 
out through my broken shoes in winter; when my arms were 
out at the elbows ; when I shivered with the cold. And I told 
them there was only one rule ; that was, always to do the very 
best you can. I told them that I had always tried to do the 
very best I could; and that, if they would follow that rule, 
they would get along, somehow. That was about what I said. 
And when I got through, Mr. Pease said it was just the thing 
they needed. And when the school was dismissed, all the 
teachers came up and shook hands with me, and thanked me; 
although I did not know that I had been saying anything of 
any account. 

" 'But the next morning I saw my remarks noticed in the 
papers.' Just here Mr. Lincoln put his hand in his pocket, 
and remarked that he had never heard anything that touched 
him as had the songs which those children sang. With that 
he drew forth a little book, saying that they had given him 
one of the books from which they sang. He began to read a 
piece with all the earnestness of his great, earnest soul. In 
the middle of the second verse his friend 'Jim' felt a choking 
in his throat and a tickling in his nose. At the beginning 
of the third verse he saw that the stranger was weeping, and 
his own tears fell fast. Turning toward Lincoln, who was 
reading straight on, he saw the great, blinding tears in his 
eyes, so that he could not possibly see the pages. He was 



540 LATEST LIGHT ON ABRAHAM LINCOLN 

repeating that little song from memory. How often he had 
read it, or how long its sweet and simple accents continued 
to reverberate through his soul, no one can know." 



ROOT, HOG, OR DIE! 

The following story is just as Lincoln told it but not as it is 
usually published. 

The morning after the return of President Lincoln and 
Secretary Seward from their conference with the Confederate 
Commissioners at Hampton Roads, General James M. Ashley, 
Congressman from Ohio, called at the White House and 
found Mr. Lincoln in exuberant spirits. The President held 
General Ashley in high esteem and was always very free with 
him in conversation. Hence, on that February morning, after 
the President's return from Hampton Roads, he talked with 
unrestrained freedom to the Ohio Congressman respecting the 
Hampton Roads affair. 

Within an hour after his delightful interview with the 
President, General Ashley was in his office in the Capitol and 
gave to me, his private secretary, a full account of what had 
taken place between the President and him. Many times dur- 
ing the half century that has passed since then have I thought 
of the General's high glee as he rehearsed to me the state- 
ments made by Mr. Lincoln. But especially gleeful was he, 
when he suddenly sprang from his chair, and said: 

"And 'Old Abe' told them a story, and it was the best of 
anything I have heard for many a day." And then, that he 
might be at his best, for he was himself a famous story- 
teller, he remained standing, his magnificent form being re- 
peatedly convulsed with laughter as he dramatically told, fresh 
from the President's lips, the story he had by strong persua- 
sion prevailed upon him to relate. That story as it was then 
given to me and carefully noted down at the time, is as 
follows: 

In all the negotiations at Hampton Roads the Confederate 




DAVID R. LOCKE 

Whose humorous Nasby writings were read and greatly enjoyed by President 
Lincoln. The copy of the Nasby book which the President read, was 
given to Mr. Locke after Lincoln's death with "A. Lincoln" written 
many times upon its paper cover. From a photograph by Brady 
taken in the author's presence, and now in his collection. 



STORIES ABOUT LINCOLN 541 

Commissioners wrought with tireless dihgence to secure terms 
of peace without any interference with the institution of 
slavery. Respecting this, Mr. Lincoln was unyielding and 
stated that not one word of the Emancipation Proclamation 
could be retracted, and that Congress had just voted by the 
requisite two-thirds majority to submit to the several states 
a constitutional amendment, which, if adopted, by three- 
fourths of the states, as he was very sure it would be, would 
forever prohibit slavery in the nation. 

At this point, Mr. Hunter of Virginia, one of the Con- 
federate Commissioners, interrupted the President by saying: 
"There is one feature of this matter which I fear the Govern- 
ment and the people of the United States do not properly 
appreciate. They should remember, as they seem not to do, 
that the white people of the South never have been accustomed 
to manual labor. They have not the physical strength and 
power of endurance to perform such labor, and they have 
no knowledge of the methods by which a living can be secured 
by handicraft of any kind. Now, if their slaves are taken 
from them, those Negroes, thus suddenly freed, would not 
be willing, at any reasonable price if at all, to become the 
hired servants of the people who had owned and controlled 
them as slaves. What then would become of this great pop- 
ulation of high-spirited white people of the South? How 
could they subsist if their slaves are taken from them?" 

Mr. Lincoln remained silent that this argument might be 
answered by his Secretary of State. But as Mr. Seward 
seemed unable successfully to meet this new and seemingly 
strong objection, the President said: 

"I do not pretend, Mr. Hunter, to know conditions in the 
South nearly as well as they are known by you, but what you 
say reminds me of an incident that occurred quite a number 
of years ago In Illinois. A farmer there by the name of Case, 
who was ambitious to raise a large number of hogs, decided 
to fatten his porkers upon turnips instead of corn. He, there- 
fore, at a time when his turnips were full grown and juicy, 



542 LATEST LIGHT ON ABRAHAM LINCOLN 

turned his herd of hogs into the large field and permitted them 
to eat without restraint. This worked finely and saved the 
farmer the trouble and expense of harvesting the turnips and 
of feeding them to the hogs. 

"One day, as he was standing watching what was going 
on in the field of turnips, a neighbor came along and said: 
'This looks very well now, Mr. Case, but you must remember 
that winter comes early, and the ground freezes as hard as a 
rock, twelve inches or more in depth. Then, what are the 
hogs going to do?' 

"This was a phase of the matter which Mr. Case had not 
considered, and dropping his head as if in deep meditation, 
he remained silent for a brief time and then with emphasis 
replied: 'Well, it may be hard on their snouts, but I guess it 
will have to be root, hog, or die !' " 

This story was effective in settling that question with 
those commissioners, and also in producing a feeling of exul- 
tation among the loyal people to whom it soon became known. 

I never saw General Ashley laugh with greater heartiness 
and abandon than when he related this story to me in his 
office just after it had been given to him by the President. 
And the story spread like a prairie fire, and was greeted with 
great gratification and merriment by the people of strong anti- 
slavery sentiments. Many times did I hear it told, and it was 
always received by peals of laughter. 

Unfortunately, as I think, for history and for the effect- 
iveness of this characteristic exhibition of Mr. Lincoln's force 
and exhaustless fund of illustration, this story has been so 
changed as to cause Mr. Hunter's expression of solicitude to 
be for the colored people of the South, who, always having 
been cared for by their masters, as Mr. Hunter is reported 
to have said, would be unable properly to live without such 
care. But this change is false to history and causes the whole 
scene, including the illustration itself, to appear flat and in- 
significant. Strange indeed would it have been for Mr. 
Hunter to present such a plea for the colored people by whose 



STORIES ABOUT LINCOLN 543 

toil the white population had been supported and made rich. 
Stranger still would it have been for Mr. Seward, the ready 
and resourceful debater, to be silenced by such an argument 
instead of being aroused instantly to an expression of confi- 
dence in the ability of the colored people to provide for their 
own needs since they had wrought so effectively for the sup- 
port and wealth of their masters. 

And most remarkable of all would it have been for Mr. 
Lincoln to have replied to a slave holder's plea for the con- 
tinuance of slavery by a story at the expense of the Negro 
slaves. It was, however, characteristic of Mr. Lincoln thus 
to turn the tables upon those with whom he was in argument, 
and this story was part of an argument he was holding with 
a white advocate of slavery. Because Mr. Hunter's plea was 
for the white people of the South who would be helpless, as 
he claimed, without their slaves, the story was overwhelming 
in its effect and closed the consideration of the slavery ques- 
tion. When applied as it was to those who, it was claimed, 
would not be competent to provide for their needs without the 
aid of the Negro slaves, the story was true to the facts in 
the case; slave holders were unaccustomed to manual labor 
and were unschooled in such work. It was unusually severe 
for Mr. Lincoln, yet not discourteous, but it would have been 
cruel if Mr. Hunter's plea had been for the colored slaves, 
who were not represented at that conference and were not 
themselves asking for any favors save the freedom which had 
been promised them by the voluntary action of the govern- 
ment. Doubly cruel would that story have been if it had been 
applied to the colored slaves, every one of whom, as far as 
known, was loyal and true to the Union during all the years 
of the Civil War, and tens of thousands of whom had fought 
heroically in the Union army. 

Mr. Lincoln's story derived peculiar force from the fact 
that the slave-holding population of the South had come to 
regard labor as degrading, and some of their leaders had 
characterized laboring people, whether black or white, as the 



544 LATEST LIGHT ON ABRAHAM LINCOLN 

"mud-sills of society," This was indignantly resented by the 
people of the North who at the time this story was told by 
Mr. Lincoln would not have relished any joke at the expense 
of the colored slaves, but were greatly pleased to have the 
President so effectively remind the slave holders of the divine 
decree that man should eat bread in the sweat of his own 
face. There was at that time intense feeling on this subject 
and the antislavery people were happy at the prospect of such 
a change of conditions as would require all to toil or suffer 
want. 

It was this which caused the story to be so popular at 
the time and to produce such merriment wherever it was read 
or related; and I am more than happy to have preserved it 
in its original form and to hand it on as an authentic con- 
tribution to the history of that crisis period. I have not the 
slightest inclination to say aught that will reflect unfavorably 
upon those who were formerly yoked with the institution of 
slavery, many of whom were unwillingly connected with that 
institution, having inherited slaves from their ancestors, and 
many of whom sought to be helpful to their slaves in morality 
and religion. But I have long felt that this story-argument 
by President Lincoln should go into history in the form in 
which it was first given to the public and in the form in which 
it has significance and force. 

A PATCHWORK QUILT— HOW IT ANSWERED LINCOLN'S 

PRAYER 

On a clear, cold Christmas morning, before the election 
of Abraham Lincoln as President, young David Durand 
awakened in his New England home to find his bed covered 
by an exquisitely beautiful patchwork quilt, made by his 
mother, and by her spread upon his bed while he was asleep. 
It was a Christmas gift to her beloved boy, and after that 
morning it was always on his bed in the old home. 

The blocks of the quilt were of uniform pattern, but the 



STORIES ABOUT LINCOLN 545 

small pieces of which those blocks were composed were of 
great variety of color, figure and combination. Young Du- 
rand was peculiarly fond of this quilt, which always reminded 
him of his loving mother's solicitude for him. It was the 
last object seen by him at night, and the first that greeted his 
vision when the morning came. He admired the skill with 
which the small fragments of many garments had been, by 
dextrous needlework, formed into shapely blocks, which, in 
like manner, were united to produce this cherished covering 
for his bed. 

He noted the chaste and aesthetic association of colors, 
and the pleasing harmony which prevailed throughout the 
quilt, and thus in his receptive nature this product of his 
mother's industry and skill became a potent factor for his 
growth and culture in the highest qualities of worthy man- 
hood. It aided him to appreciate her rare domestic genius 
and accomplishments; to call to mind and meditate upon her 
loving ministrations; to realize the cost and value of his 
earthly comforts, and to cherish an exalted purpose to be 
worthy of his priceless heritage. In the quiet of the evening 
hour, and in the darkness of the night, that patchwork quilt 
was more than a needed and appreciated covering for his 
bed, it was a silent evangel of God to his expanding soul. 

But when the great war came, David responded to the 
call for troops, and as a member of the loth Connecticut 
Volunteers he quickly reached the front and entered upon the 
hardships and dangers of army life. 

When the magnitude and severity of the struggle came to 
be realized it was discovered that the Government, suddenly 
called to defend the nation's life, could not by existing methods 
provide for all the needs of sick and wounded soldiers and 
sailors, and hence in June, 1861, the Sanitary Commission 
was organized to supplement the work of the United States 
Medical Bureau. It was supported by money and supplies 
contributed by the people of every loyal state in the Union. 
It had its own independent system of transportation and was 



546 LATEST LIGHT ON ABRAHAM LINCOLN 

able to provide for emergencies on battlefields and in hos- 
pitals in advance of any relief which the Government could 
afford. 

To one of the directors of this beneficent organization, 
President Lincoln gave the following account of its origin: 
"One rainy night I could not sleep ; the wounds of the soldiers 
and sailors distressed me; their pains pierced my heart, and 
I asked God to show me how they could have better relief. 
After wrestling some time in prayer, He put the plans of the 
Sanitary Commission in my mind, and they have been carried 
out pretty much as God gave them to me that night." 

Soon after David's enlistment an agent of this Commis- 
sion called at his Connecticut home to solicit contributions 
for the Army and Navy Hospitals. The hearts of his parents 
were made especially responsive to this call by remembrance 
of their own soldier-boy, and one of their contributions was 
the patchwork quilt which they took from David's bed, and 
sent forth upon its mission of loving ministration. 

'Tt is hard to part with that quilt," said Mrs. Durand, 
"for it is a constant reminder of David. It was always on 
his bed and he seemed to love it dearly. I shall miss it, 
especially when I am in his room, but it will do more good 
in the Army Hospitals than here and I will make another quilt 
for David, when he comes home." 

Without any request as to where it should be sent, with- 
out any thought of such a request, these godly parents, with 
some hesitation it is true, but with Christian cheerfulness, 
took that cherished quilt and sent it forth with the prayer 
that, under God, it might be helpful to some suffering soldier 
as it had given joy and comfort to the beloved one who had 
gone out from his home at his country's call. And He, "who 
is able to do exceeding abundantly above all that we ask or 
think," heard the prayer that silently arose from that mother's 
heart, and Christmas morning, 1862, in an Army Hospital 
away down in Newbern, North Carolina, David awakened 
from a feverish sleep to find himself lying beneath the patch- 



STORIES ABOUT LINCOLN 547 

work quilt which for years had covered his bed at home. For 
a time he was bewildered by this seeming apparition. He 
remembered that during the preceding day his illness was at- 
tended by delirium, and he was apprehensive that what he 
saw was not reality, but only a mental vision which investiga- 
tion would speedily dispel. 

With quick and nervous movements he sat erect in bed, 
and seizing the beautiful covering in his hands, closely scanned 
each block only to be assured that it was none other than the 
quilt his mother made and spread upon his bed that Christmas 
morning long ago. There was the block composed of pieces 
from the dresses his mother wore, and near by, in like ar- 
rangement, were the familiar fragments of his sister's prints 
and plaids. And there, also, too unique ever to be forgotten 
or duplicated, was the block his dear old grandmother had 
"pieced" from materials she had selected for her own attire. 
Each block in the quilt was a valid mark of identification, 
and trembling with intense excitement he called the hospital 
steward and said, "Where did you get this quilt?" 

Observing his excitement, the steward calmly answered, 
"I got it in the storeroom where such supplies are kept. Why 
do you ask?" 

"I ask," the agitated soldier almost shouted, "because this 
quilt was made by my mother for my bed at home. It is the 
very same one. I know it is. The last night I spent at home 
I slept under it as I had done for years, and when I left for 
the front this quilt was on my bed in Derby, Connecticut. 
How, then, did it come to be here, in this Army Hospital, 
hundreds of miles from my home, and how did it come to be 
here on my cot ? Was it sent to me ? And did you, knowing 
it was mine, have it spread upon my cot while I was asleep? 
Tell me, please, how did it all come about?" 

But the steward could give no satisfactory answers to 
these questions which came in rapid succession, like shots 
from a repeating rifle. The quilt, he said, had come with 
other supplies contributed by the people, and without any 



548 LATEST LIGHT ON ABRAHAM LINCOLN 

knowledge of its history, it had been placed upon that cot, 
when, on the preceding day, David was admitted to the hos- 
pital. Beyond that, the steward could give him no informa- 
tion. 

But He who said, "Cast thy bread upon the waters for 
thou shalt find it after many days," knew all about it. 

And for some great and good purpose of His own. He 
had taken from that mother's trembling hands her contribu- 
tion to the Sanitary Commission, and by process of His own 
choosing, had conveyed it all the way from Connecticut to 
that Army Hospital. And during the night preceding that 
Christmas morning He had caused the quilt to be spread upon 
the cot on which that mother's fever-stricken and delirious 
boy was sleeping. 

It was a little opening in the curtains that conceals from 
view the infinite realm in which are constantly conducted the 
operations by which the grace of God ministers to human 
needs. There is just enough of such disclosures of Divine 
oversight to give assurance that in all things, and at all times, 
our heavenly Father is caring for His children and is making 
more effective than we have dared to hope, all our efforts to 
promote His cause and to help our fellowmen. 

After his brief illness, young Durand informed his parents 
that he had discovered his favorite quilt in an Army Hospital, 
and asked if they could explain its being there. To this letter 
his father made prompt reply, as follows: 

"You speak of seeing a bed-quilt at the Hospital that you 
thought you knew. Most likely, for your mother gave a quilt, 
a w^oollen blanket, a pair of sheets, and some table-cloths 
for old linen. The quilt was the one you used to sleep under 
at home. It must have looked like an old friend in a strange 
land." 

HIS LAST PICTURE 

"About the last of February, 1865, Mr. H. F. Warren, 
a photographer of Waltham, Mass., left home, intending, if 



STORIES ABOUT LINCOLN 549 

practicable, to visit the army in front of Richmond and Peters- 
burg. Arriving in Washington on the morning of the 4th 
of March, and finding it necessary to procure passes to carry 
out the end he had in view, he concluded to remain there 
until the inauguration ceremonies were over, and, having car- 
ried with him all the apparatus necessary for taking negatives, 
he decided to try to secure a sitting from the President, 

"At that time rumors of plots and dangers had caused 
the friends of President Lincoln to urge upon him the 
necessity of a guard, and, as he had finally permitted the 
presence of such a body, an audience with him was somewhat 
difficult. On the afternoon of the 6th of March, Mr. Warren 
sought a presentation to Mr. Lincoln, but found, after con- 
sulting with the guard, that an interview could be had on 
that day in only a somewhat irregular manner. After some 
conversation with the officer in charge, who became convinced 
of his loyalty, Mr. Warren was admitted within the lines, 
and, at the same time, was given to understand that the surest 
way to obtain an audience with the President was through 
the intercession of his little son Tad.' The latter was a great 
pet with the soldiers, and was constantly at their barracks, 
and soon made his appearance, mounted upon his pony. He 
and the pony were soon placed in position and photographed, 
after which Mr. Warren asked 'Tad' to tell his father that 
a man had come all the way from Boston, and was particu- 
larly anxious to see him and obtain a sitting from him. 'Tad' 
v/ent to see his father, and word was soon returned that Mr. 
Lincoln would comply. In the meantime Mr. Warren had 
improvised a kind of studio upon the south balcony of the 
White House. Mr. Lincoln soon came out, and saying but a 
very few words, took his seat as indicated. After a single 
negative was taken, he inquired: 'Is that all, sir?' Unwill- 
ing to detain him longer than was absolutely necessary, Mr. 
Warren replied, 'Yes, sir,' and the President immediately 
withdrew. At the time he appeared upon the balcony the 
wind was blowing freshly, as his disarranged hair indicates. 



550 LATEST LIGHT ON ABRAHAM LINCOLN 

and, as sunset was rapidly approaching, it was difficult to 
obtain a sharp picture. Six weeks later Mr. Lincoln was 
dead, and it is doubtless true that this is the last photograph 
ever made of him."* 

In no picture of Mr. Lincoln which I have seen is there 
more expression than in this, but it is expression peculiar to 
this photograph. It reveals his feelings at the time the nega- 
tive was taken, not irritation but repressed regret at having 
been interrupted and taken away from work. The poise of 
his head, his knit brows, and piercing eye all indicate the feel- 
ings of a busy man yielding reluctantly to a request he is 
unwilHng to refuse. Dear little "Tad!" we are indebted to 
him for this priceless picture. 

ONE LETTER WRONG 

Abraham Lincoln was first inaugurated President on the 
4th of March, 1861. During the winter preceding that event 
he prepared, at Springfield, with very great care, his exceed- 
ingly able inaugural address which effectively forecast his 
entire administration and left those who were enlisting in 
rebellion no excuse for the course they were pursuing. He 
also called a special session of Congress to meet on the Fourth 
of July following his inauguration. A brief message out- 
lining the immediate needs of the government was presented 
at that special session. 

The regular annual meeting of Congress occurred on the 
3rd of December, 1861, and to this session of Congress the 
President presented his first regular message. There was a 
fact connected with this message which seemed, at the time, 
to attract very little attention, but it is so peculiar and sug- 
gestive that in my opinion it should have a place in history. 
It would be difficult for one not living in this country at that 
time to realize the extent to which strife and contention pre- 
vailed among loyal people of the nation during the period 

* Century Magazine, Vol. 2, p. 852. 



STORIES ABOUT LINCOLN 551 

between the President's inauguration on the 4th of March 
and the presentation of his first regular message to Congress 
in December. 

Early in an administration many appointments to office 
are made by the President. This always leads to contention 
and strife, and at the time referred to this contention was 
far greater than usual, for, with the change of Presidents, 
there was also a change of the party in power which leads 
to the removal of many who were holding office, and of the 
filling of their places by others in harmony with the adminis- 
tration. During the period referred to, the Rebellion was in 
progress and caused sharp differences of opinion among the 
loyal people. In addition to this there was a nation-wide 
and constantly growing struggle between the radical and con- 
servative wings of the party in power respecting the policy 
which should be pursued by the government concerning the 
institution of slavery. 

There were some who at that time believed the adminis- 
tration should at once resort to extreme measures for the 
immediate destruction of slavery as a righteous retribution 
for a great wrong and also as a means for the preservation 
of the nation. The other wing of the party was in heart and 
spirit opposed to slavery but feared that any action of the 
government against that institution would divide the loyal 
people and endanger the preservation of the Union. 

From earliest recollection I had been an ardent abolition- 
ist, therefore my sympathies were with the radical portion of 
the loyal people. But I was always a devoted friend and 
admirer of Abraham Lincoln and fully believed, and openly 
declared that, as early as was safe to do so, he would pursue 
the course we desired. But my opposition to slavery was so 
pronounced that I was in close party fellowship with the radi- 
cals, attending their special meetings, and thus being kept 
constantly informed respecting their plans relative to slavery. 

During all that summer and autumn it was hoped that in 
his forthcoming regular message President Lincoln would 



552 LATEST LIGHT ON ABRAHAM LINCOLN 

make known his policy upon this subject, and well do I re- 
member with what impatience I waited for the appearance 
of that message, and with what a degree of interest I secured 
and read a copy telegraphed to the papers throughout the 
nation on the day it was presented to Congress. In those 
days the President's message, when delivered to Congress, 
was telegraphed to the newspapers throughout the country 
and was by those papers published with more or less fullness 
the next day. After it had been delivered to Congress a 
printed copy of the message was also mailed to the news- 
papers throughout the country, and when it was received was 
helpful in correcting any errors which might have crept into 
the copy which previously had been sent by wire. 

The next day after that message was presented to Con- 
gress I secured a paper at m.y Ohio home containing the 
full text of the message as sent by wire to the newspapers. 
With intense interest I at once gave attention to this im- 
portant document, and in so doing soon found the following: 
"We should not be in haste to determine what radical and 
extreme measures which may reach the loyal as well as the 
disloyal, are indispensable." 

Many times I read this passage with inexpressible delight 
assured that it could not be less than an implied declaration 
by the President that "radical and extreme measures" were 
or would be needed, but that "we should not be in haste to 
determine" what measures of that character to choose. Of 
course, we were expected to employ "radical and extreme 
measures," or the government would not thus proclaim its 
purpose to select such measures with care and deliberation. 
In my exuberance of spirits I could see slavery speedily vanish 
under such a wise and timely policy. 

But all this depended upon just one letter remaining in 
the place it occupied in the portion of that message above 
quoted. To substitute for that one letter another letter which 
might be chosen would change the policy of the administra- 
tion from radical to conservative, and would cause our vision 



STORIES ABOUT LINCOLN 553 

of the immediate and utter overthrow of slavery to vanish 
like a dream. 

And that is just what occurred. The correct message, 
when it appeared a few days later, printed just as President 
Lincoln wrote it with "t" occupying the place which the tele- 
graph operator assigned to "w," thereby changed "what" to 
"that," and indicated that President Lincoln would not "be 
in haste" to commit the government to the emancipation 
policy. 

I can feel today painful remnants of the disappointment 
I experienced when my high hopes of an immediate declara- 
tion of emancipation were thus dashed to the ground. It was 
not long, however, until it became evident to the most radical 
of Mr. Lincoln's supporters that he was pursuing the wise 
and proper course. 

On page 52, Volume VII., Complete Works of Abraham 
Lincoln, is the sentence here referred to. Many times during 
the last five decades I have spoken of the remarkable error 
in its first publication, and no one to whom I ever have 
mentioned the matter had any previous knowledge of the 
occurrence. Such an error could not now occur in the pub- 
lication of a regular message of the President, as that docu- 
ment is now sent in printed form to the newspapers in ad- 
vance, and is released for publication when it is presented to 
Congress. The magnitude of the task of transmitting the 
message by telegraph, as was formerly the custom, is indicated 
by the following from the New York Tribune of March 5th, 
1861: 

"The manner in which President Lincoln's (first) inau- 
gural was transmitted by telegraph is deserving special com- 
mendation. The American Telegraph Company, under the 
able management of E. S. Sanford, Esq., vice-president, 
placed at the disposal of the Associated Press three wires be- 
tween Washington and this city. The delivery of the inau- 
gural commenced at 1:30 o'clock Washington time, and the 
telegraphers promptly to the minute began its transmission 



554 LATEST LIGHT ON ABRAHAM LINCOLN 

to New York. The first words of the message were received 
by the agent of the press here at 1 145 o'clock and the last 
at about three thirty, while the entire document was furnished 
to the different newspapers by 4:00 o'clock. Such rapidity 
in telegraphic communication has never before been reached 
in this country, and it should be a source of pride to the 
American Company, and its president and operators, that so 
notable an act has been accomplished. We understand that a 
full synopsis of the inaugural was yesterday evening trans- 
mitted to St. Johns, N. F., thence to be forwarded by steam 
tug to intercept the Steamship Fulton, bound to Europe, off 
Cape Race." 

LINCOLN'S CHASTENESS IN CONVERSATION 

Major Hay and Mr. Nicolay, Mr. Lincoln's secretaries, 
were members of his household during a large portion of his 
official term — Mr. Carpenter, the artist, lived in the White 
House during six months — Professor Henry sought every 
opportunity to be with him, and these four witnesses, who 
saw him in his unconstrained private life, agree that neither 
of them heard from Mr. Lincoln's lips any sentence or word 
which might not have been repeated in the presence of ladies. 
The subject is one upon which I can give evidence. It was 
a great pleasure to me to listen to him, and I have several 
times sought to excite his propensity for anecdote with suc- 
cess. In my own office, where no one but a messenger was 
present, he was under no restraint. Yet I never heard him 
relate a story or utter a sentence which I could not have 
repeated to my wife and daughters — L. E. Chittenden. 

HIS FAVORITE SONG 

In the winter of 1863 President Lincoln attended an anni- 
versary meeting of the Christian Commission, held in the hall 
of the House of Representatives at Washington. With char- 
acteristic modesty he declined a seat on the platform, but 



STORIES ABOUT LINCOLN 555 

manifested deep interest in the proceedings. During the 
program PhiHp Phillips sang "Your Mission," a song very 
popular at that time. Near the close of the exercises the Pres- 
ident quietly sent the presiding officer the following note: 
"Please have Mr. Phillips repeat the song — Your Mission. 
Do not say I called for it." 

It was not my good fortune to be present on that occa- 
sion, but two years later I attended a similar affair and heard 
Mr. Phillips relate the foregoing incident while holding in 
his hands Mr. Lincoln's written request. Looking down at 
the reporters who sat before him, Mr. Phillips said to us, "Do 
not think you will get this, gentlemen of the press, for you 
will not. Copy it as I read it, if you wish, but you cannot 
have it at any price." We gladly accepted this invitation and 
the reader here has the note just as it was read by Mr. 
Phillips. 

The following is the song referred to: 



YOUR MISSION 

If you cannot on the ocean 

Sail among the swiftest fleet, 
Rocking on the highest billow. 

Laughing at the storms you meet, 
You can stand among the sailors. 

Anchored yet within the bay. 
You can lend a hand to help them, 

As they launch their boats away. 

If you are too weak to journey 

Up the mountain, steep and high, 
You can stand within the valley. 

Where the multitudes go by. 
You can chant in happy measure. 

As they slowly pass along; 
Though they may forget the singer. 

They will not forget the song. 



556 LATEST LIGHT ON ABRAHAM LINCOLN 

If you cannot, in the harvest. 

Gather up the richest sheaves, 
Many a grain both ripe and golden, 

Oft the careless reaper leaves — 
Go and glean among the briars 

Growing rank against the wall, 
For it may be that their shadow 

Hides the heaviest wheat of all. 

If you have not gold and silver 

Ever ready to command ; 
If you cannot toward the needy 

Reach an ever open hand ; 
You can visit the afflicted. 

O'er the erring you can weep, 
With the Saviour's true disciples, 

You a patient watch may keep. 

If you cannot in the conflict 

Prove yourself a soldier true. 
If where fire and smoke are thickest, 

There's no work for you to do, 
When the battlefield is silent. 

You can go with careful tread. 
You can bear away the wounded, 

You can cover up the dead. 

Do not, then, stand idly waiting 

For some greater work to do ; 
Fortune is a lazy goddess, 

She will never come to you. 
Go and toil in any vineyard. 

Do not fear to do or dare. 
If you want a field of labor. 

You can find it anywhere. 

— Mrs. Ellen Huntington Gates. 
English Hymns, 258. 



INDEX 

This Index was prepared by Rev. James M. Campbell, D.D. 



Abraham Lincoln and the Civil War, 
James R. Gilmore, 75, 83, 84, 87, 

239 

Abraham Lincoln, a History, Nicolay 
and Hay, 20, 21, 32, 58, 136, 137, 
192, 195, 201, 223, 256, 455 

Abraham Lincoln, D. D. Thompson, 
388 

Abraham Lincoln, and Men of His 
Time, Robert Browne, 301, 332, 
340, 380, 412 

Abraham Lincoln, Man Inspired by 
God, a Lecture, Col. Henry Wat- 
terson, 13 

Abraham Lincoln and His Presidency, 
225 

Abraham Lincoln, The Tribute of a 
Century, 34 

Abraham Lincoln, Tributes from his 
Associates, 108, 144, 416 

Advance, The, quoted, 384 

Age of Reason, Paine's, Lincoln's 
repudiation of, 301 

American Conflict, The, Horace, 
Greeley, 468 

A Mother's Plea, a Lincoln story, 251 

Analysis, New York Vote, for Lin- 
coln and McClellan, 131 

Ancestry of Lincoln, 17-19; his grand- 
father Abraham, 17; tragedy of 
his death, 17; independent and 
resourceful, 17; of sturdy moral 
quaHties, 18; his father Thomas, 
17; his escape from an early death, 
17; a typical frontiersman, 18; 
mild-mannered, 18; of nomadic 
habits, 19; his anti-slavery senti- 
ments, 19; his high moral worth, 19 



Andrew, Governor of Mass., his 
impatience with Lincoln, 227 

Antietam, Battle of, its effect upon 
the Union Cause, 229 

A Patch-work Quilt, a Lincoln story, 
598 

Appearance, personal, of Lincoln, 
43-82; generally caricatured, 43; 
his great height, 45 ; his erect figure, 
45; his majestic bearing, 45, 46; 
athletic, 46; of great strength, 46; 
his presence-power, 47, 48 ; look of 
intellectuality, 48; absence of self- 
consciousness, 49; a king among 
men, 49; imposing on platform, 50; 
finely proportioned, 52, 53; shapely 
hands, 54, 67; his dress becoming, 
56; refined and courteous, 57; 
appeal from literature to art, 59-61 ; 
massive head, 7 1 ; harmonious and 
pleasing, 71; inspiring, 71; his 
expressive eyes, 75; his habitual 
melancholy, 76-78; his unattract- 
ive lower lip, 81 ; mouth indicative 
of gentleness and firmness, 82 

Arnold, Hon. Isaac N., demands 
death of slavery, 272 ; on Lincoln's 
Second Inaugural Address, 296; 
on a moment of apocalypse, 393 

Ashley, Hon. James M., on Lincoln's 
consummate ability as a public 
speaker, 52; his Toledo Anti- 
Slavery address, 180; his bill for 
aboUshing slavery in the District 
of Columbia, 208; his masterly 
handUng of discussion on Consti- 
tutional Amendment, 250; his 
success in carrying it through, 269; 



557 



S58 



INDEX 



his unwavering loyalty to Lincoln, 
498 
Autobiography, Andrew D. White, 

73, 75. 76, 482, 533 
Author, The; his long and careful 
preparation for writing this book, 
7; his personal touch with men 
and events, 8; his special Hterary 
"find" in the Diary of Dr. Gurley, 
8 ; his correction of numerous errors 
8; his exposure of the Herndon 
slander, 9; his complete forth- 
setting of Lincoln's religious ex- 
perience, 10; his participation in 
national movements, 120; his op- 
position to false claims, of Peace 
party, 129; his part in anti-saloon 
movement, 170; his marching in 
the Fremont procession, 188; 
his explanation of Lincoln's utter- 
ance touching the issuing of Eman- 
cipation Declaration, 229; on 
struggle for Constitutional Amend- 
ment, 255; his reminiscences of 
Second Inauguration, 277; the 
birth-hour of his book, 277; his 
sense of Lincoln's transcendent 
greatness, 282-285; private Sec- 
retary of Hon. James M. Ashley, 
486; thoroughly conversant with 
the inner political Washington cir- 
cle, 486; a keen and careful ob- 
server of the trend of the times, 487 
A Scoffer Weeps, a Lincoln Story, 542 
A Slave Mother's Prayer, A Lincoln 
story, 542 

Bancroft, Hon. George, his letter 
to Lincoln on Abolition of Slavery 
as the Issue of the War, 221 

Bartlett, Truman, on transfiguration 
of Lincoln's face, 51 ; his denial of 
the description of Lincoln as home- 
ly, 59, 63 ; on Lincoln's lower lip, 82 

Bateman, Dr. Newton, his intimate 
relation with Lincoln, 351; con- 
fidences reposed in him, 253; gives 



light from within, 353; on Lin- 
coln's religious dissatisfaction, 401; 
on his disappointment with the 
churches, 437, 438 
Behind the Scenes, Elizabeth Keckley, 

309 

Bible, the, Lincoln's unqualified ac- 
ceptance of its teachings, its mold- 
ing influence upon his life, its large 
use in his public utterances, 299- 

314- 

Benjamin, Judah P., his account of 
interview between Gilmore and 
Jaquess, and Mr. Davids, 134 

Binns, Henry, his inconsistency touch- 
ing the illegitimacy scandal, 26 

Birth of the Republican Party in 
Illinois, 184 

Blair, Senator, his comment on 
Lincoln's temperance principles, 
158 

Blaine, James G., on validity of 
Emancipation Proclamation, 240 

Borglum, Gutzon, the Sculptor, 
his description of Lincoln, 45, 53, 
59; his characterization of life- 
mask, 63 

Boutwell, Hon. George S., on sadness 
of Lincoln's face when at rest, 76 

Brady's photograph of Lincoln, 
56 

Bramlette, Governor of Kentucky, 
letter of Lincoln to, 346 

Brockett, Dr. L. P., on religious Ufe 
of Nancy Hanks, 22 

Brooks, Noah, his high estimate of 
Nancy Hanks, 21; his vivid de- 
scription of Lincoln's appearance, 
69; on Lincoln's prayer hfe, 378; 
on his self-depreciation, 402 

Browne, Dr. Robert, on Lincoln's 
estimate of moral influence of the 
Bible, 301 ; on his habitual use of 
it, 310; on his close communion 
with God, 380 

Browne, Francis Fisher, on Lincoln's 
maternal inheritance, 24 



INDEX 



559 



Browning, Senator, H., Lincoln's 
letter to, on the Fremont procla- 
mation, 198 

Bryant, John Howard, Lincoln's host, 
66 

Burst of sunshine at Second Inau- 
guration, 281 

Cameron, Simeon, his attempt to 
force Lincoln's hand, 206; his 
appointment as minister to Rus- 
sia, 207 

Carpenter, F. B., on pensive and 
tender look in Lincoln's eyes, 74; 
his mistake at first regarding "prep- 
aration" of Emancipation Procla- 
mation, 225; Lincoln's explanation 
regarding the purpose of withhold- 
ing it, 229 

Carruth, Dr. W. H., on prenatal 
influence, 28 

Century Magazine, The, 45, 55, 56, 
62, 67, 74, 77, 79, Vol. 2, p. 852 

Chase, Salmon P., his modification 
of Ashley's Emancipation Declara- 
tion adopted, 235 

Chicago, delegation of preachers, urg- 
ing radical anti-slavery measures, 
231; Lincoln's apprehensions, 224 

Chiniquy, Father, Lincoln's soul re- 
vealings to, 328, 329; his inter- 
view with the President, 375 

Chittenden, Hon. L. E., on Lin- 
coln's reverence for the Bible, 302; 
his belief in the power of prayer, 
334; his conviction that he was 
divinely called, 340 

Choate, Hon. Joseph H., on Lincoln's 
awkwardness, 34 

Chronicle, The Washington, report 
of Lincoln's "latest, shortest and 
best speech," 439 

Church, The, Lincoln's appreciation 
of it, 430; his support of its ordi- 
nances, 430; his reasons for not 
joining it, 435-440; his ultimate 
intention to unite with it, 440 



Clean Hands, A Lincoln Story, 536 

Coflfin, Charles Carlton, on queenly 
appearance of Nancy Hanks, 23 

Cogsdale, Isaac, on Lincoln's view of 
the Atonement, 326 

Complete Works of Abraham Lin- 
coln, 118, 125, 139, 145, 188, 190, 
191, 207, 217, 220, 223, 224, 235, 
237, 244, 245, 261, 306, 307, 311, 
316, 389, 391, 394, 406, 411, 416, 
417, 418, 421, 423, 453, 465 

Congressional Globe, 173 

Conkling, Senator, his defense of the 
Emancipation Proclamation, 237 

Cooper Institue Speech, Lincoln's, 189 

Constitutional Amendment, 249-274; 
in the crucible, 249, 250; as finally, 
shaped, 251; its failure to secure 
a two- thirds majority vote, 252; 
General Ashley's strategy, 252; 
a battle royal, 253; effects of de- 
struction of slavery feared, 254; 
campaign conducted by General 
Ashley, 257; impetus given to 
movement by re-election of Lin- 
coln, 259; foreshadowed in annual 
message of 1864, 261; success for 
a time doubtful, 262; General 
Ashley's flank movement, 263; 
ineffectual attempt of Southern 
Peace Committee to reach Wash- 
ington, 265 ; Speaker Colfax's fate- 
ful vote, 268; intense excitement 
on passage of the measure, 270; an 
epoch-making event, 268 ; final vote 
in the House on anti-partisan vic- 
tory, 270; analysis of vote,27i ; Lin- 
coln crowned as Emancipator, 274 
Conversion, Lincoln's, 395-397 

Corwin, Hon. Thomas, author of 
Constitutional Amendment, 192 

Court in a Cornfield, A Lincoln Story, 

537 
Courageous Fidelity, A Lincoln Story, 

537 
Crook, Col. W. H., on Lincohi's Bible- 
reading habit, 308 



56o 



INDEX 



Cuyler, Dr. Theodore L., impressions 
of Lincoln's appearance, 45; com- 
plimented by Lincoln, 58; on 
Lincoln's mental anguish, 390 

Curtis, George William, on spell of 
Lincoln's portrait, 72, 73; on Lin- 
coln's consolatary view of death, 

391 

Curtis, William Eleroy, on Thomas 
Lincoln, 19 

Davis, Jefferson, his interview with 
Gilmore and Jaquess, 112; his 
contention that the South was 
fighting for independence and not 
for Slavery, 126; manifesto of 
peace only by independence, 130 

Davis, Senator Garrett, his dread of 
emancipation, 248 

Deming, Hon. H. G., on Lincoln's 
patience and courage, 54; on 
radiancy of Lincoln's smile, 74 

De Soto, picture of in the Capitol, 43 

Diary of Gideon Welles, quoted, 228 

Diary of Dr. Gurley, extracts from, 
500-511 

"Discoveries and Improvements," 
Lincoln's lecture on, 303 

Dispatch, The Richmond Daily, 134 

Doolittle, Senator, Lincoln's letter 
to, 320, 389 

Douglas, Stephen A., the little giant, 
34; a helpful opponent, 35; his 
debate with Lincoln, 187; his 
magnanimous spirit, 34 

Dow, General Neal, his release from 
Libby Prison, 108; author of 
Maine prohibitory law, 161 

Down in Tennessee, 135 

East Baltimore Conference, Lin- 
coln's reply to, 349 

Emancipation Proclamation, 2 19-248 ; 
state action, not governmental 
edict, Lincoln's plan, 220; pres- 
sure enormous, 221; insistence on 
by Andrew, Greeley, and others, 
222; address to deputation of 



Chicago ministers, 223; gradual 
change of view, 224; corrected his- 
tory of preparation of Emancipa- 
tion Proclamation, 225; message 
to Congress asking for Compensa- 
tion and gradual emancipation, 228 ; 
second draft of Emancipation Proc- 
lamation presented to cabinet, 
229; signed and published, 230; 
Greeley's heartless arraignment of 
it, 230; its public effect, 232; its 
endorsement by House of Repre- 
sentatives, 234; only preliminary, 
234; final form gave freedom to 
slaves, 234 

Employment of colored soldiers in 
army, 245 

Eternal felicity in heaven, Lincoln's 
hope in, 393; letter to his step- 
brother, 393; touching interview 
with his step-mother, 394; his 
belief in reunion, 394 

Eugenics, Twelve University Lec- 
tures, Dr. W. K. Carruth, 28 

Eulogy on Lincoln, Henry Champion 
Deming, 431 

Eulogies on Lincoln, Scrap Book, 412 

Everyday Life of Lincoln, Francis 
F. Browne, 418 

Evening Post, The, New York, its 
statement anent vessels for slave 
trade, 180 

Everybody's Magazine, quoted, 68 

Everett, Edward, on Lincoln's 
courtly appearance, 56 

Fell, J. W., Lincoln's letter to, 407 
Fidelity to Emancipation, Lincoln's 

237 
Fifty Years in the Church of Rome, 

Father Chiniquy, 342, 375, 423, 528 
Fortune's, favorite, Lincoln, 17; good 

ancestry, 17; good mother, 23; a 

good beginning, 3 1 ; good discipline, 

32; strong friends and foes, 34; 

a good wife, 35; good spiritual 

advisers, 38 



INDEX 



561 



Frankly Confessed His Fault, A 
Lincoln Story, 533 

Fremont, the Sculptor, his charac- 
terization of life-mask, 65 

Fremont, Gen, John C, his dec- 
laration of martial law in the state 
of Missouri, 194-202 

Fremiet, Jessie Benton, her effort to 
keep the President from modifying 
her husband's proclamation, 197 

Friend's Review, quoted, 375 

From Pioneer Home to White House, 
W. M. Thayer, 372, 378, 422, 429 

Future Life, Lincoln's confidence in, 
393; held man was made for im- 
mortality, 393 

Garfield, Gen. James A., his high 

esteem of Col. Jaquess, 85 
Giddings, J. R., Lincoln's letter to, 

343 

Gilmore, James R., his characteriza- 
tion of Lincoln's eyes, 75; his con- 
nection with the Jaquess peace 
embassage, 85-87 

Gospel ministers who came into Lin- 
coln's life, 38-40 

Grady, Henry W., on Lincoln as the 
first typical American, 14 

Graham, Meter, his testimony con- 
cerning Lincoln's manuscript, 326 

Greeley, Horace, on the spell of 
Lincoln's presence, 47; on political 
influence of the Jaquess-Gilmore 
mission, 138; his fiery protest 
against Lincoln's hesitancy in sign- 
ing the Emancipation Declara- 
tion, 227; his severe arraignment 
of it, 230 

Greeley and Lincoln, 441-494; 
Greeley anti-slavery standard- 
bearer, 441; author's early rev- 
erence for him, 441; the prophet 
of the abolition movement, 442; 
its one plank, 442; Greeley's sup- 
port of Fremont for presidency, 
443 ; Lincoln's nomination, 443 ; the 



author's dissatisfaction with his 
conservative policy, 444; Greeley's 
strong endorsement of Lincoln's 
Cooper Institute speech, 444; his 
preference for Douglas, 445; his 
letter to Joseph Medill, 445; 
Lincoln's magnaminity, 446; the 
Seward-Greeley episode, 449, 450; 
Greeley's reluctant acceptance of 
Lincoln's nomination, 451; a pow- 
erful factor in Lincoln's triumph, 
451; his advocacy of the right of 
secession, 452; planting the seeds 
of civil war, 453; efforts of Lin- 
coln to stem the tide, 454; Greeley's 
lack of practical sagacity, 445; 
his scheme of peaceful separation 
painful to Lincoln, 457; respon- 
sible for precipitate action, 458; 
heartless criticism of Lincoln, 459; 
pessimistic outlook, 461; a somer- 
sault, 462; Greeley's proposal 
to be Lincoln's mouthpiece, 462; 
Lincoln's qualified acceptance, 463; 
alliance never fully consummated, 
464; Greeley a continuous em- 
barrassment, 466, 467; his open 
letter, 467; Lincoln's bland reply, 
468; like oil upon the troubled 
waters, 469; Greeley's enthusiastic 
support of Emancipation Proclama- 
tion, 470, 471; his opposition to 
Lincoln's renomination, 473; his 
abetment of Wade-Davis faction, 
473; his active interest in Con- 
ference of Niagara Falls, 474; led 
into ambush by the enemy, 476; 
his loyalty unquestioned, 477; 
his advocacy of the resumption 
of specie payment, 480; his lack 
of balance, 482; his tardy recog- 
nition of Lincoln's wisdom and 
statesmanship, 483 
Green, William S., his estimate of 

Thomas Lincoln, 19 
Grierson, Francis, on Lincoln's magic 
touch, 49, 51 



562 



INDEX 



Gurley, Dr. P. D., Lincoln's pastor 
in Washington, 40; his trusted 
counsellor, 40; first to know of 
Lincoln's purpose to issue Eman- 
cipation Proclamation, 228; his 
suggested changes accepted, 228; 
on Lincoln's deepened religious 
experience, 403; extracts from his 
diary, 500-511 

Gumey, Mrs., Eliza P., head of 
deputation from the "Society of 
Friends," 34 

Halsted, Murat, his explanation of an 
unfortunate incident, 144 

Hampton Roads Conference, 241 

Hamlin, Vice President, taken into 
confidence of the President, 226 

Hanks, Nancy, by Caroline Hanks 
Hitchcock, 19 

Hanks, Nancy, mother of Lincoln, 
19-25; of excellent ancestry, 20; 
her personal charms, 20; married 
at twenty- three, 20; her great 
force of character, 21; her deep 
but simple piety, 21; her native 
refinement, 21; her appearance 
described, 22; Lincoln's tender 
trobute to her memory, 23; slan- 
derous statements regarding her 
birth exposed, 25-28 

Hanaford, Phebe A., her tribute to 
mother of Lincoln, 21 

Harper's Magazine, 402 

Hay, John, on changefulness of 
Lincoln's expression and demeanor, 
18; regarded Lincoln as the greatest 
man since Christ, 427, 514 

Hayes, Ex-President R. B., on Lin- 
coln's Second Inaurgural, 144 

Herald and Presbyter, quoted, 385 

Herndon, WilUam H., Lincoln's law 
partner, 25 ; his vile slander touch- 
ing the illegitimacy of Lincoln and 
his mother, 25-27 

High Schools, study of Lincoln rec- 
ommended for, 6 



His favorite song, 559 

His Last Picture, A Lincoln story, 553 

Hitchcock, Mrs. CaroUne Hanks, 
25; her characterization of Thomas 
Lincoln, 19; her summation of 
peerless qualities of Nancy Hanks, 
24 

Hoges, A. G., Lincoln's letter to on 
evils of slavery, 188 

Holland, Dr. John G., on tran- 
scendent qualities of Lincoln's 
mother, 22; on Lincoln's prayer- 
fulness, 377; on his concealment 
of religious experience, 400; on 
his grief at lack of support from 
the churches, 436 

Holmes, Dr. Oliver Wendell, Atlantic 
article on Gilmore-Jaquess mission, 
126 

Homiletic Review, quoted, 376 

Hour of soul agony, 414, 415 

Iglehart, Rev. F. C, D.D., charming 

Lincoln story, 383; another, 392 

Independent, The, article in quoted, 

374 
Independence Hall Address, Lincoln's 

344 

Intelligencer, The National, prints 
Lincoln's open letter to Greeley, 
469 

Jackson, Mrs. Trevena, on Bible 
as the one book of Lincoln's 
mother, 299 ; on the influence of the 
Bible on Lincoln's character, 313 

Jacobs, Dr. Harvey Eyester, his in- 
fluence on Lincoln, 46 

Jaquess, James F., 39, 83-140; an 
honored preacher, 39; a great 
factor in Lincoln's life, 39; his 
unique mission, 83; a striking 
personality, 84; colonel of the 
73rd Illinois Volunteers, 84; a 
• brave officer, 84; a true patriot, 
84; a prophet of judgment, 84; 
Lincoln's estimate of him, 84; 



INDEX 



563 



his embassy of peace, 85; not 
fanatic nor quixotic, 86; secretly- 
backed by Lincoln, 89; his letter 
to the President, 92; the seeming 
refusal of his request, 94; Presi- 
dent keeps in background, 95, 96; 
meeting of Colonel Jaquess with 
General Longstreet, 98; the Presi- 
dent's interest in the mission, 100; 
the Second embassy, 100; Gilmore 
chosen as leader of deputation, 
103, 104; terms of agreement, 104; 
delicacy of the task, 107; inter- 
veiw with Jefferson Davis and 
Judah P. Benjamin, iii; sub- 
mission of terms, 112; reply of 
Davis, 113; Col. Jaquess, noble 
manifesto, 114; Gilmore 's report 
to the President, 117; the satis- 
faction of the Press with the enter- 
prise, 117; errors corrected, 134; 
failure of Nicolay and Hay to 
interpret Jaquess' part in the 
transaction, 135-137; significance 
of lost letter, 137; purpose of the 
volunteer embassy successfully ac- 
complished, 140 

Johnson, Andrew, Vice-President, his 
part in Second Inauguration, 275; 
his sad lapsus, 291-294 

Jones, Thomas B., his bust of Lin- 
coln, 46 

Judd, Hon. Norman B., Lincoln's 
host, 293 ; on Lincoln's modesty, 407 

Judgment, a future, Lincoln's be- 
lief in, 388; lived in the light of 
the great white throne, 389; held 
himself answerable to God in all 
things, 389 

Keckley, Ehzabeth, on Lincoln turn- 
ing to the Bible for comfort, 309; 
"When Willie Died," 394 

Kelley, Hon. W. D., gives glimpses 
into Lincoln's home hfe, 427 

King, Gen. Horatio, on Lincoln's 
definite religious consecration, 403 I 



Laws of Heredity, Dr. George Wil- 
liams on, 28 

Leader, The, New York, on vessels 
for slave trade, 180 

Led by a Child, A Lincoln Story, 527 

Led by the Spirit, A Lincoln Story, 515 

Liberator, The, quoted, 373 

Long, Hon. John D. on Lincoln's 
early environment, 33 

Lincoln, the Citizen, Judge H. C. 
Whitney, 19, 184, 319, 338, 379 

Lincoln's chasteness in conversation, 
A Lincoln Story, 558 

Lincoln as Lawyer acts as a Pastor, 
A Lincoln Story, 527 

Lincoln, Robert T., explains his 
father's melancholy look, 75 

Lincoln in Story, Silas G. Pratt, 528 

Lincoln Scrap Book, 326, 345, 371, 
375, 380, 392 

Lincoln-Lee Legion, a Temperance 
Organization, 148 

Lincoln, President, and the Chicago 
Memorial, 340 

Lincoln, at a Saloon Door, a Lin- 
coln Story, 535 

Life of Abraham Lincoln, Pbebe A. 
Hanaford, 21 

Life of Abraham Lincoln, John G. 
Holland, 377, 401 

Life of Abraham Lincoln, Robert 
Browne, 408 

Life on the Circuit with Abraham 
Lincoln, Judge Henry C. Whitney, 
76, 226, 346, 379, 403 

Life of Lincoln, Charles Coffin, 145 

Life of Lincoln, Ida M. Tarbell, 380 

Life of Lincoln, William H. Herndon, 

164 
Lutherans, Evangelical, Lincoln's de- 
liverance to, 345 

Mask, life, of Lincoln, shows a face 
ideally perfect, 62-65 

McAlUster, Hon. Archibald, his sup- 
port of Constitutional Amendment, 
264 



5^4 



INDEX 



McClellan, General, nominee of Chi- 
cago Convention, 119 

McClure, Col. A. K., his reverence 
for Lincoln, 48; on Lincoln's ret- 
icence, 399; his characterization of 
Greeley as a disturber, 457 

McMaster, portrait of Lincoln, 66 

Melvin, Dr. S. H., the custodian of 
Lincoln's lecture on "Discoveries 
and Improvements," 303 

Melvin, Judge Henry A,, owner of 
manuscript of Lincoln's lecture, 303 

Memories of White House, 308 

Memorandum of Lincoln, epoch- 
making, 124 

Men and Things I Saw in Civil War 
Days, Brigadier General Rusling, 

375 

Merwin, Major, his Illinois Temper- 
ance Campaign, 161; his reception 
at White House, 175 

Mills, John T., his solicitude about 
Lincoln's health, 116 

Minutes, Reunion of Illinois In- 
fantry Volunteers, 297 

Miner, Rev. W. W., Lincoln's friend 
and counsellor, 371 

Mix, Captain, his close relation with 
President, 428 

Modesty of Lincoln, speaks of 
humble birth, 406; of unfitness 
for office, 407 ; of limitations, 407 ; 
lays claim to sincerity but not to 
greatness, 407 

Monfort, Rev. F. C, his confirma- 
tion of Murdock Story, 385 

Monitor, The, on Lincoln's exalted 
character, 426 

Morse, J. J., repeats illegitimacy 
scandal, 26 

Motley, John Lothrop, on Lincoln's 
freedom from worldlyambition, 427 

Munsell, Olive S., on Lincoln's view 
of the issue of the War, 413 

Murdock, James F., his service to 
Lincoln, 384; his account of Lin- 
coln in prayer, 385 



Niagara Falls Convention, its aim, 
118 

Nicolay, in Century article, on Lin- 
coln's imposing appearance, 50; 
declares popular impression that 
Lincoln was "ugly, gawky, and 
ill-mannered" radically erroneous, 
59; avers his face was pleasing 
in repose, 74 

New York Legislature, Lincoln's 
address before, 344 

North American Review, quoted, 348, 
411 

Ohio, Legislature, Lincoln's address 

before, 344 
One Letter Wrong, A Lincoln Story, 

554 
Order for Sabbath observance, Lin- 
coln's, 361 

Patton, Rev. W. W., on Chicago 

Memorial, 340 
Peace Movement, a disloyal, 122; 

a loyal, 128; a prayer for, 120 
Feck, Rev. J. M., his infelicitous cor- 
respondence with Lincoln, 312 
Pierce, H. L., Lincoln's letter to, on 

justice to God, 339 
Pendleton, Thomas F., on Lincoln's 

treatment of a visitor, 311 
Personal Recollections of Abraham 

Lincoln and the Civil War, James 

R. Gilmore, 84, 410 
Personal Recollections of Abraham 

Lincoln, Mr. and Mrs. Ralph 

Emerson, 320 
Personal Traits of Abraham Lincoln, 

Helen Nicolay, 527 
Pollard A. E., on secret plans of the 

Confederates, 109 
Political History of Slavery, 120 
Political Recollections, 262 
Pomeroy, Rebecca, Lincoln visits 

hospitals with, 363 
Portraits of Lincoln, 63, 65, 71, 72, 

77,82 



INDEX 



565 



Prayer for Peace, by women of 
Ohio, 120 

Prayer of Twenty Millions, The, open 
letter of Greeley, 467 

Prayer, Lincoln's faith in, 364; a 
special answer to, 364; asks for 
prayers, 365; calls the nation to 
its knees, 368; asks prayers of 
visiting clergymen, 369; asks pray- 
ers of nurse when his boy's life was 
trembling in the balance, 369; 
visits the hospitals with Mrs. 
Pomeroy, 370; removed restric- 
tions to holding of prayer meetings, 
370; his attendance at Church 
prayer meeting, 37 1 ; his comfort in 
being prayed for, 371; his esti- 
mate of secret prayer, 372; value 
of prayer for the nation, 372; a 
charming incident, 373; another, 
374; an affecting scene with 
Father Chiniquy, 375; visit from 
Friends, 375; asks Bishops James 
and Simpson to pray for him in 
his private office, 476 

"'raying President, A, a befitting 
title, 376; early sought the way of 
prayer, 377; pressed to his knees 
by the weight of responsibility, 
378; daily prayer a habit, 378; 
testimony of Hon. John G. Nicolay, 
378; of Major Merwin, 379; his 
prayer-life genuine, 379; went to 
the heart of things, 379; talked 
with God, 380; prayer and praise, 
380; early morning vigils, 381; 
in agony of prayer, 382; spent 
the hour between four and five 
every morning in prayer, 382; 
Sanitary Commission born in 
prayer, 382; touching testimony 
of James F. Murdock, 384; prayer 
before Gettysburg, 386; testimony 
of General Sickles, 387; prayer a 
formative force in Lincoln's life, 388 

Prenatal influence, medical author- 
ities, 28 ; Bible testimony, 29, 30 



Presbyterian, The, quoted, 385 
Punch, The London, change of heart 

after Lincoln's death, 484 
Punishment, future, Lincoln's be- 
lief in, 390; held that character 
and destiny are inseparably con- 
nected, 390; saw no hope for the 
finally impenitent, 391 

Raymond, Hon. Henry J., his letter 
to the President, 123 

Recollections of a Long Life, Dr. 
Theodore Cuyler, 45 

Refused to Pledge, a Lincoln Story, 
536 

Reid, J. A., in Scribne/s Magazine, 
411 

Religion of Abraham Lincoln, Gen- 
eral Charles H. T. Collis, 419 

Religious Experience, Lincoln's, 
395-440; evidence of his personal 
religious experience cumulative and 
overwhelming, 395; his conversion, 
395-398; evidence furnished by 
Dr. Jaquess, 396, 397; silence 
touching this event quite under- 
standable, 398; subsequent period 
of doubt strictly normal, 398; 
examined into the ground of his 
hope, 398; naturally reserved and 
reticent, 399; revealed his religious 
convictions only to those who were 
in sympathy with them, 401 ; in- 
trospective and self-exacting, 402; 
a time of crystallization, 402; in- 
dulged a hope, 402 ; his purpose of 
making a public religious confes- 
sion, 402; makes a definite con- 
secration, 403 ; a progressive experi- 
ence, 403; like that of Paul, 404; 
changed heart evidenced by life, 
406; restraints of modesty, 406; 
marked self-depreciation, 407; 
deep humility, 408; absolute hon- 
esty and truthfulness, 408; be- 
lieved himself chosen of God, 409; 
fully obedient to God's will, 410; 



566 



INDEX 



his reliance upon God, 411; his 
unfaltering trust, 412; his faith 
sorely tied, 414; his spirit of 
thankfulness, 416; ascribed all vic- 
tories to God, 416; his gratitude 
for re-election, 420; his outlook 
upon death, 421; assassination a 
possibility, 422; his life in God's 
hands, 423; claimed Christian 
privileges, 424; his character es- 
sentially Christian, 426; his home 
Hfe ideal, 427; why not a church 
member, 430; objected to lengthy 
creeds, 431; repelled by the 
Church's tolerance of slavery, 433; 
had exalted conception of charac- 
ter and mission of the Church, 
438; could not conceive of a Chris- 
tianity that sanctioned slavery and 
rebellion, 440; his purpose to unite 
with the Church unintentionally 
prevented, 440 
Rehgious Faith, Lincoln's, 299-363; 
his faith in the Bible, 299; taught 
to memorize it by his mother, 299 ; 
his reverence for its teachings, 300; 
his indebtendess to Dr. James 
Smith, 300; his repudiation of 
Paine's "Age of Reason," 301; 
his conference with Hon. L. E. 
Chittenden, 302; his lecture on 
"Discoveries and Im.provements," 
303; quoted, 303, 304; its sig- 
nificance, 303-306; his love for the 
Bible, 307; his diligent study of it, 
308; his recourse to it for com- 
fort, 309; Bible reading a daily 
habit, 310; an illustration of his 
accurate Bible knowledge, 311; 
his apt quotations, 311, 312; 
President Roosevelt's testimony, 
313; his faith fundamental, 314; 
his earliest autograph, 314; his 
belief in Divine omnipotence, 316; 
in Divine omniscience, 317; in 
Divine omnipresence, 318; belief 
in the Saviour's Deity, 319; ref- 



erence to Christ's temptation, 320; 
use of Christ's words, 321-323; 
belief in our Lord's miracles, 323; 
in his atoning sacrifice, 324; story 
of manuscript against Christianity 
false, 325; a manuscript of an- 
other sort, 325, 326; use of scrip- 
ture in touching incident, 327, 
328; his declaration of faith to 
Father Chiniquy, 328, 329; his 
belief in the doctrine of the Holy 
Spirit, 329, 330; in divine lead- 
ings, 332, 333; his belief in prayer, 
334; his Thanskgiving Proclam.a- 
tion analyzed, 337; his beHef in 
Divine Sovereignty, 338; in him- 
self as God's instrument, 341; his 
dependence upon God, 345; his 
faith in an overruling Providence, 
347; in God's purpose concerning 
the American nation, 349; in God's 
retributive justice, 350; saw gath- 
ering storm, 353; ultimate triumph 
of the right, 354-356; his faith in 
Divine compassion and mercy, 
357-359; the Church as a divine 
insritution, 359-361; regard for 
the Christian Sabbath, 361; sal- 
vation by faith in Christ, 362; 
personal regeneration, 363 

Reminiscences of Abraham Lincoln, 
Thomdyke Rice, 143, 319, 310, 361 

Reminiscences of Second Inaugura- 
tion, 277-279; its stage setting, 
278; the dramatic scenes described, 
272-282; the central figure, 282; 
his power of personality, 283; his 
thrilling utterance, 285; its happy 
introduction, 285; its electrical 
effect, 287; its apt use of Scrip- 
ture, 288; its faultless climax, 289; 
administration of oath by Chief 
Justice Chase, 290; Vice-President 
Johnson's painful episode, 291- 
294; a strange day-star, 295; 
the Inaugural address a master- 
piece, 295, 296; extolled by Dr. 



INDEX 



567 



J. C. Holland, 296; by Hon. Isaac 

N. Arnold, 296; by Hon. Chas. 

Sumner, 297; by Carl Schurz, 297; 

by R. B. Hayes, 297; by the 

London Press, 297, 298; Lincoln's 

own opinion of it, 298 
Rise and Fall of the Confederate 

Government, Jefferson Davis, 134 
Robinson, Charles P., his protest 

against Constitutional Amendment, 

256 
Roberts, Dr. Wm. H., his testimony 

to Lincoln's presence at prayer 

meeting, 368 
Roosevelt, Ex-President Theodore, 

on Lincoln's absolute mastery of 

the Bible, 313, on his practical 

piety, 427 
Root, Hog, or Die, A Lincoln Story, 

544 

Rosecrans, Gen. W. S., his estimate 
of Col. Jaquess, 84; his participa- 
tion in the Gilmore-Jaquess affair, 
84-93 

Rusling, James F., his war memories, 
375; his certification of Lincoln's 
wrestling in prayer before the 
battle of Gettysburg, 387 

Russell, Caleb, Lincoln's letter to, 

345 
Russell, Dr. Howard H., founder of 
Anti-Saloon League and Lincoln- 
Lee Legion, 149; discovery of 
Cleopas Breckenridge, 150 

Salisbury', Senator, his pessimistic 

outlook, 271 
Sanitary Comm.ission, born of prayer, 

383 
Second Inauguration, reminiscence 

of, 277 
Schurz, Carl, on Lincoln's Second 

Inaugural, 297 
Scribner's Magazine, 69, 240, 301, 378, 

403,411 
Seeks Fellowship in Prayer with 

Beecher, A Lincoln Story, 539 



Seward, Hon. William H., his gloomy 
political forecast, 123; his pre- 
sentiment of Lincoln's widening 
greatness, 276 

Shot through his Hat, A Lincoln 
Story, 536 

Sickles, Gen. Daniel E., Lincoln's 
declaration to, 385 

Six Months in the White House, 
F. B. Carpenter, 74, 77, 78, 225, 
349. 374- 400, 402, 410, 419, 438 

Slavery, Lincoln opposed to, 176-218; 
Anti-slavery conflict a thrilling 
romance, 176; the essential char- 
acter of slavery, 177; Mexico's 
piteous plea, 178; an unholy traffic, 
1 79 ; execution of Slave pirate, 1 79 ; 
mercenary motives, 180; Lincoln 
"naturally anti-slavery," 180; first 
pubHc protest, 181; famous anti- 
slavery slogan, 182; unwillingness 
to interfere with slavery where it 
existed constitutionally, 184; nat- 
urally conservative, 185; growth 
of anti-slavery sentiment, 186; 
opposition to the extension of 
slavery, 187; the Douglas debate, 
187; Peoria Speech, 187, 188; 
speech at first RepubHcan State 
convention, 189; famous Cooper 
Institute speech, 189; address at 
New Haven, 190; commitment to 
protection of slavery as required 
by the Constitution, 191; appre- 
hension of Southern States set at 
rest, 191 ; first inaugural, 191; 
emancipation foreshadowed, 193; 
embarrassed by Fremont's prem- 
ature action, 194-202; demand 
of Kentucky legislature for modi- 
fication of Fremont's proclamation, 
194; attempt at subsidizing jour- 
nalist, 201; forecast of disaster, 
202; Fremont relieved of com- 
mand, 202; qualified permission 
to employ loyal slaves in military 
service, 203; unwarranted recom- 



568 



INDEX 



mendation of Secretary of War, 
205; futile efforts in stemming 
the tide of anti-slavery legislation, 
208; bill introduced by Hon. 
James M. Ashley, 208; its final 
form a compromise, 210; five 
anti-slavery laws passed, 212; grad- 
ual abolishment of slavery favored, 
215; financial compensation to 
slave owners proposed, 216; draft 
of Emancipation Proclamation al- 
ready prepared, 217; why with- 
held, 217; its inevitableness, 218 

Smith, Helen Evenston, in the Inde- 
pendent, 374 

Smith, Rev. James, the comforter 
of Lincoln in bereavement, 3 1 ; 
on Lincoln's plea for the dis- 
tribution of the Bible, 301 

Southern History of the War, 108 

Southern Review, 179 

Sotitheni Standard, 179 

Speaking Oak, The, Rev. F. G. 
Iglehart, D.D., 392, 529 

Spectator, The London, on Lincoln's 
Second Inaugural Address, 291 

Speed, Joshua F., Lincoln's letter to, 
on price of loyalty, 188; on Lin- 
coln's love for the Bible, 310 

Speed, Mary, Lincoln's letter to, 

307 
Standard, The Southern, its advocacy 

of the reopening of the African slave 

trade, 179 
Stanton, Edwin M., his appointment 

as Secretary of War, 207 
Stevens, Hon. Alexander H. on 

Lincoln's unchangeable purpose 

with respect to emancipation, 241 
Stoddard, William O., on Lincoln 

as king of men, 49 
Stories about Lincoln, 515-559; Led 

by the Spirit, 513; A Mother's 

Plea, 521; Court in a Cornfield, 

522; World-wide Fame, 524; 

Where the Whetstone was, 526; 

Led by a Child, 527; Thoughtful 



for Others, 528; 530; The Hired 
Man, 531; Watched with a D5ang 
Soldier, 532; Three Terrors, 532; 
Frankly Confessed His Fault, 533; 
Shot through His Hat, 536; Cour- 
ageous FideUty, 537; Refused to 
Pledge, 536; Seeks Fellowship in 
Prayer with Beecher, 539; A 
Slave Mother's Prayer, 542; A 
Scoffer Weeps, 542; Root, Hog, 
or Die, 544; A Patchwork Quilt, 
How it Answered Lincoln's prayer, 
548; His Last Picture, 553; One 
Letter Wrong, 453; Lincoln's 
Characters in Conversation, 558; 
His Favorite Song, 559 
Strong Friends and Foes, 34 
Sumner, Hon. Charles, on Second 
Inaugural, 297; his characteriza- 
tion of Lincoln's reconstruction 
scheme as "state Suicide," 487; 
his final acceptance of it, 488 
Swett, Leonard, his testimony re- 
garding Lincoln's temperance prin- 
ciples, 143 

Tarbell, Ida M., her denial of the 
slander of Nancy Hanks, 27 

Temperance, Lincoln and, 141-175; 
Lincoln a life-long abstainer, 141; 
regarded intemperance and slavery 
as twin evils, 141; prevalence of 
drinking customs, 141; strict so- 
briety almost unknown, 142; es- 
poused temperance cause when a 
boy, 143; his pledge to his mother, 
143; refusal to provide liquors for 
nominating committee, 144; Dec- 
claration to Sons of Temperance, 
145; refusal to use champagne for 
sea-sickness, 145; a temperance 
lecturer, 146; famous temperance 
speech, 146; not responsible for 
liquor license, 154; a prohibitionist 
before the prohibition party was 
organized, 156; a supporter of the 
Washingtonian movement, 157; 



INDEX 



569 



his study of foundation principles, 
159; held that no moral wrong 
should have legal sanction, 159; 
famous State House Address, 160; 
endorsement of Maine Law, 161; 
a dynamic utterance, 162; par- 
ticipation in prohibition campaign, 
164; prolonged studies of pro- 
hibition a preparation for his de- 
bates with Douglas, 165-167; the 
foundation prohibition principle 
identical with that of republican 
national platforms, 168; opposed 
to license feature of internal 
revenue measure, 170; last utter- 
ances on the question, 174 
Temperance Movement, The, 157, 

158 
Thanksgiving Proclamation of Lin- 
coln, 238; a summary of their 
objects, 339 
The Hired Man, A Lincoln Story, 527 
Thirty-six Years in the White House, 

311 

Thirty-eighth Congress, 249 

Thompson, Dr., his description of 
Nancy Hanks, 22 

Thompson, George, on decisive mo- 
ment when slavery was doomed, 
218 

Thoughtful for Others, A Lincoln 
Story, 530 

Three Terrors, A Lincoln Story, 532 

Times, The London, on Lincoln's 
Second Inaugural Address, 298 

Todd, Mary, wife of Lincoln, 35-38; 
of noble lineage, 36; of high cul- 
ture, 36; exceptionally fitted to be 
help-meet of Lincoln, 36; her 
noble ambitions, 36; her sym- 
pathy with her husband's political 
aims, 36; her graceful ministries, 
37; her unfaihng support of her 
husband, 38 
Transcript, The Boston, Evening, 
on the Gilmore-Jaquess, embassy, 
126 



Tribute of WiUiam M. Stewart, 276, 

277 
Trist, Mr., U. S. Minister to Mexico, 

his letter to James Buchanan, 177 
True Abraham Lincoln, The, William 

Eleroy Curtis, 19, 378 
Twenty Years in Congress, 240, 252, 

258 

Uncompleted Chapter of American 
History, a hitherto, 441 

Unpublished manuscript of Rev. P. 
D. Gurley, D.D., extracts from, 
500; secured by author from his 
daughter, Mrs. Emma K. Adams, 
500; Dr. Gurley chosen as pastor 
because he let politics alone, 500; 
a morning chat with the President, 
501; confidences given, 501; Lin- 
coln's fearlessness, 502; Col. Mos- 
by's surprise visit, 501; Admiral 
Shufeldt's secret mission, 502; 
How to tell a story, 502; address 
delivered at little Willie's funeral, 
502; Lincoln's fondness for it, 
503; presentation of cane to 
Dr. Gurley, 505; outpouring of 
sympathy over little Willie's death, 
505 ; how colored people took nev/s 
of Lincoln's death, 506; the Ceno- 
taph, by James T. McKay, 508 

Valley of the Shadows, Francis 
Grierson, 49, 51 

Vinton, Dr. Francis, a helpful spir- 
itual adviser, 39 

Volk, Leonard W., his death-mask 
of Lincoln, 45, 61, 79 

Vote, popular in six states, in 1864, 132 

Wade-Davis Manifesto, 485-499; a 
dangerous revolt, 485; Davis a 
strong personality, 485; a violent 
extremist, 485; the status of rebel 
states a burning question, 485; 
radical reconstruction advocated 
by Davis and Wade, 486; Lincoln 



5/0 



INDEX 



opposed to it, 486; his message to 
Congress on the subject, 487; a 
chorus of approval, 488; Garfield's 
great satisfaction, 489; appoint- 
ment of Epecial committee 'W'ith 
Davis as chairman, 490; report in 
conflict with President, 490; bill 
amended by Senate, and finally 
passed, 492; President refrains 
from attaching signature, 495; 
manifesto by Wade- Davis, 495; 
its spirit infelicitous and harmful, 
495; its base insinuations to painful 
to the President, 497 ; Ashley's sup- 
port a comfort, 499; Davis' Re- 
construction Bill finally killed by 
vote of Congress, 499 

Wakeman, Abraham Lincoln's letter 
to, 108 

Walker, Rolx>rt J., Greeley's eflort 
to annex him, 460 

War between the States, 24 

War Records, 203 

Washburn, Hon. Elihu B., his proph- 
ecy of failure of presidential cam- 
paign, 123; on significance of Lin- 
coln's labors for Temi>crance, 162 

Watched with a D\-ing Soldier, A 
Lincoln Story, 532 

Welles, Hon. Gideon, on Lincoln's 
great strength, 46 



Wesley's characterization of slaver;, . 
182 

What was Abraliam Lincoln's re- 
ligion?, 379 

Where the Whetstone Was, A Lin- 
coln Story, 520 

Wliite, Andrew D., on melancholy 
tirge in portraits of Lincoln, 75 

Whitney, Judge H. C, on sociability 
of Thomas Lincoln, 19 

Williamson, Alexander, on Lincoln's 
careful study of the Bible, 308 

Williamson, Dr. George, on prenatal 
influence, 28 

Wilson, Senator, his opposition to 
the license feature of the Internal 
Revenue measure, 171 

Wilson, Hon. Jam.es F., account of 
interview with President, 347 

Works of Abraliam Lincoln, Federal 
Edition, 184 

Works of Abraliam Lincoln, Noah 
Bro<jks, 20, 189 

World, The New York, on deporta- 
tion of slaves, iSo 

Ycaman, Hon. George H., his oppo- 
sition to EmandiJation Proclama- 
tion, 260; his ixjlitical conversion, 
262; vote cost liim liis political 
head, 270 



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